227 



THE ROCK PIPIT. 



Rock-Lark. Field-lark, of Bewick. 



Anthus petrosus, Mont, (sp.*) 



„ aquations, Bechst. 

 Alauda obscura, Gmel. 



Inhabits the sea-coasts throughout the year, 



And has on those of the north, east, west, and south, commonly 

 occurred to me. Although this species does not appear in Mr. 

 Templeton's published Catalogue of Irish Vertebrata,t I find by 

 reference to his MS. that he was acquainted with it. Under the 

 name of Alauda petrosa, he remarked, " common about the rocks, 

 on the shore." It is nowhere more plentiful than about the rocky 

 marine islets, of which Tory, off the north of Donegal, J and the 

 south islands of Arran (off the bay of Galway), by reason of their 

 extreme position, may be particularized. 



With the following observations of Montagu, my own entirely 

 agree. He remarks that the rock pipit "seems wholly con- 

 fined to the neighbourhood of the sea, and is never found, 

 even in winter, more remote than the contiguous marshes within 

 the occasional influx of the tide, depending chiefly on marine 

 insects for its subsistence, and has never been observed to be gre- 

 garious." (Art. Rock Lark in Orn. Diet.) Mr. Selby has ob- 

 served it to be " strictly confined to the rocky and abrupt shores ;" 

 (HI. Brit. Orn., vol. i. p. 259.) but close to the town of Belfast, a 

 coast of the very opposite character is frequented by this bird. On 

 the lowest and most oozy part of the beach, it may always be seen 

 about the rejectamenta of the tide, consisting almost wholly of the 

 Zostera marina, the accumulated masses of winch form the chief 

 attraction. To stony embankments, piers, and similar erections, it 



* This species is named Alauda petrosa, and rock lark by Montagu, in a paper 

 published in the 4th vol. of the Linnsean Transactions, entitled " Descriptions of 

 three rare species of British Birds." The only synonyms there referred to are Alauda 

 obscura, Latham, and dusky lark, Lewin. The two other species are the wood wren, 

 Sylvia sylvicola, and the Phayrelarn sandpiper, Tringa nigricans. This note is in- 

 troduced here, in consequence of the paper being referred to in different works, without 

 the author's name being mentioned. 



t Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i., new series. 

 % Several observed here in Aug. 1845, by Mr. Hyndman. 



d2 



