204 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



and South Europe, and thus reach this country. 

 Richard's Pipit is a Central Asian species, winter- 

 ing in India, Burma, and China ; but every year 

 numbers take the wrong direction (chiefly young 

 birds), fly west instead of east, and thus get into 

 Europe. The Tawny Pipit visits us occasionally 

 on its way down from its northern haunts to 

 Algeria ; whilst the Alpine Pipit has been ob- 

 served more sparingly. This latter species is not 

 so much of a migrant as the others, generally 

 leaving the high mountains in autumn, and de- 

 scending to the lower valleys. It is well known 

 on Heligoland at this season, and probably has 

 found its way from there to the British coasts. 

 Five species of Larks are included in our list of 

 rare autumn visitors. The Short-toed Lark, the 

 Calandra Lark, and the Crested Lark occasionally 

 visit us, the two former most likely from Turkestan, 

 as their habitat in Western and Southern Europe 

 does not extend sufficiently far north to place 

 them in the southern stream of migrants; the 

 latter probably comes by way of Heligoland 

 from Scandinavia. The handsome White-winged 

 Lark has, through the acumen of the late Mr. 

 Swaysland, been detected as a visitor to this 

 country. It is an inhabitant of the eastern steppes 

 from Russia to the Altai mountains in Siberia. 

 In the latter country it is a regular migrant, and 

 in journeying to Turkestan to winter, a few stray 

 birds are carried westwards by the great wave of 

 migrants into Europe. There can be little doubt 

 that other examples will occur from time to time, 



