RED-THROATED PIPIT. 229 



ANTHUS CERVINUS. 

 RED-THROATED PIPIT. 



(PLATE 14.) 



Motacilla cervina, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. i. p. 611 (1826) ; et auctorum pluri- 

 morum (Bonaparte), (Deyland $ Gerbe), (Savi), (Salvadori), (Hume), (Oates), 

 (Dresser), &c. 



Anthus cecilii, And. Descr. de TEgypte, p. 360, pi. 5. fig. 6 (1828). 



Anthus pratensis nubicus, Hempr. fy Ehr. Symb. Pkys. fol. dd (1829). 



Anthus rufogularis, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 340 (1831). 



Anthus cervinus (Pall.}, Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xlviii (1840). 



Anthus ruficollis, Vieillfide Heugl. Orn. N.O.-Afr. p. 323 (1869). 



The Red-throated Pipit lias scarcely any valid claim to be regarded as 



British bird. The only authority upon which it is inserted in the British 

 list is that of a single individual in the possession of Mr. Bond, who 

 obtained it from the Troughton Collection, labelled " Isl. Unst, May 4th, 

 1851." There can, however, be very little doubt that it occasionally visits 

 our islands, as it has frequently occurred on Heligoland and in most other 

 countries in Europe. 



The Red-throated Pipit breeds on the tundras above the limit of forest- 

 growth from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it becomes rarer west of the 

 Ural Mountains, and in North Scandinavia is very local. It passes through 

 Finland and Russia, Turkey, and Asia Minor on migration, and winters in 

 Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia. To the west of these limits it can only be 

 considered a straggler ; but it has occurred in autumn on Heligoland, and 

 in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. A few of the Siberian birds pass 

 through Turkestan and winter in Persia and India; but the main stream 

 apparently passes through South-eastern Siberia into China, Burma, and 

 the Andaman Islands. 



I first made the acquaintance of the Red-throated Pipit on a bit of 

 swampy ground not far from the little village of Kistrand, on the shores 

 of the Porsanger Fjord in Finmark. I had everywhere found the 

 Meadow-Pipit very common, when I suddenly came upon a little colony 

 of the red-throated species, and shot three of them in five minutes. At 

 Vadso I had abundant opportunity of watching the bird. The spring was 

 very late ; and in the last week of June the birds were only just beginning 

 to breed, and were in full song. The Red-throated Pipit is not so shy as 

 the common species, does not take alarm so easily, and is much less 

 difficult to approach within easy gunshot. Its song is more melodious and 

 prolonged, more nearly resembling that of the Tree-Pipit, which bird it 



