244 BRITISH BIRDS. 



ANTHUS OBSCURUS. 



ROCK-PIPIT. 



(PLATE 14.) 



Alauda obscura, Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. p. 494 (1790) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 {Bonaparte), (Leach), (Gould), (Keyserling $ Blaisus), (Salvadori), (Neiuton}, 

 (Dresser), &c. 



Alauda petrosa, Mont. Trans. Linn. Soc. iv. p. 41 (1798). 



Spipola obscura (Lath.}, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. fyc. Brit. Mm. p. 22 (1816). 



Anthus rupestris, Nilss. Orn. Suec. i. p. 245 (1817). 



Alauda campestris (Linn}, apud Beicick, Brit. B. \. p. 217 (1826). 



Anthus petrosus (Mont.}, Flem. Brit. An. p. 74 (1828). 



Anthus littoralis, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 331 (1831). 



Anthus aquaticus, Bechst. apud Selby, Brit. Orn. i. p. 258 (1833). 



Anthus obscurus (Lath.), Keys. $ Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xlviii (1840). 



Anthus spinoletta (Linn.), apud Macyill. Man. Brit. B. i. p. 169 (1840). 



Anthus immutabilis, Degl. Orn. Eur. i. p. 429 (1849). 



The Rock-Pipit is a resident on all the coasts of the British Islands, 

 with the exception of the low-lying eastern shores south of Spurn, 

 where it only appears as a straggler or on migration. It is found 

 commonly in the Channel Islands, in the Hebrides, St. Kilda, the Orkneys, 

 and Shetland, and is also common in the Faroes, although not known 

 to visit Iceland or Greenland. 



The Rock-Pipit is little more than a coast-form of the Water-Pipit, 

 and appears to be confined to the rocky portions of the coasts of North- 

 western Europe, from the White Sea to the Bay of Biscay. It is found 

 on the shores of the Baltic ; but there is no satisfactory evidence of its 

 frequenting those of the Mediterranean. It is a resident throughout 

 its range, except in the extreme north. 



The haunt of the Rock-Pipit or, as Macgillivray more aptly terms it, 

 the " Shore-Pipit," is on rocky coasts, even the most dreary and deso- 

 late being enlivened with the presence of this soberly dressed little bird. 

 It is strictly a bird of the rocks, and during the breeding-season only 

 frequents that part of the coast close to the sea between the incoming 

 tide and the summits of the cliffs, on which the true sea-birds cluster 

 in myriads. It frequents rocky islands as much as the mainland; and 

 numbers breed, and are resident throughout the year, on the Fames, the 

 Bass Rock, the Isle of May, and perhaps every other rocky islet beyond, 

 including the most isolated ones, far into the stormy Atlantic. When 

 its haunts are invaded it becomes very restless, and flits from rock to 

 rock before you, the wind often driving it along like a fleck of foam. It 



