BETWEEN MUSSOORI AND GANGAOTRI IN MAY 1874. 251 



of the Redwing ( Turdus iliaciis) , is not possessed by P. arboreus ; 

 and with this observation the egotistical one dismisses the idea 

 of their identity for ever ; but perhaps Lord Walden or my 

 friend Mr. Dresser (both of whom I know to be very able 

 ornithologists, and who have each done gigantic work for which 

 I am sure I am grateful if no one else is) may think fit to unite 

 these two Pipits, as the former did, or wished to do, C. strio- 

 lata and C. rufula; and as the latter did all the Larks, save, 

 perhaps, the Wood-lark, which escaped the wholesale fusion — 

 confusion, I should perhaps have said. 



Antlms agilis, Sykes, is a term often applied to P. maculatus, 

 but the reason for such a misapplication no one can tell. It is a 

 fancy or sort of fashionable mistake, which there is no account- 

 ing for. 



Did not Blyth declare his conviction that the type was 

 P. trivialis = P. arboreus, but the specimen being an old one, he 

 was not positive ? At all events there are no grounds whatever 

 for applying the term to our Eastern Green Wood Pipit, which 

 we don't find frequenting the ground described by Sykes. His 

 words are, " Found on opeu stony lands ;* female unknown ; 

 closely resembles the Titlark of Europe. Its chief difference 

 is in the hind toe. ,, The total length he gives is 6%. This is 

 larger than either P. maculatus or P. arboreus : probably the 

 bird was one of the three barren laud Pipits, C. striolata, Agro- 

 droma campestris, or C. rufula. An undersized and young 

 C. striolata would answer the description well ; and the hind claw 

 of these young birds is much shorter than that of the adults. 

 Mr. Blyth knew the two Pipits well ; and when he did not re- 

 cognize the Eastern Green Pipit in Sykes' type, we may be 

 satisfied that whatever P. agilis was, it was not P. maculatus. 

 The use of the term is inconvenient, and tends to confusion : 

 some apply it to the Western Tree Pipit, while others apply 

 it to the eastern, or Chinese Green Pipit. A similar fashionable 

 error is the indiscriminate application of the term Badytes viridis 

 to all the Green-backed Wagtails ! One man intends one species 

 by u B. viridis" and another, another species ; but all have a very 

 hazy notion of the bird they wish to indicate. Local lists 

 containing such vague terms are very puzzling and compara- 

 tively valueless. We have in the Indian longitude, the whole 

 four Green-bached Field Wagtails, aud let each have its proper 

 name, even on the score of convenience, for this lumping of 

 species that clearly differ is getting beyond all bounds in this 

 miserable Darwinian age. I look upon the terms " viridis'''' and 

 " agilis' as convenient shelters for the undecided naturalist ; 

 and behind such terms he feels safe. 



* But all about Poena, you do find maculatus frequenting " open stony ground. — " 

 Ed. 



J 



