140 RICHARD’S PIPIT. 
Seebohm found both old and young in August, up to 58° N. lat. ; 
and the bird nests abundantly on the elevated steppes of Eastern 
Turkestan, the Lake Baikal district and Mongolia. In winter it 
visits South China, Burma, and the Indian region to Ceylon. 
The nest is built during the early part of June, in some depression 
in a meadow or grass-field; and the eggs, which, judging from the 
clutches obtained by Dybowski, are generally 5 in number, are 
greyish-white blotched with various shades of brown: measurements 
*86 by ‘68 in. In Daiiria the Cuckoo frequently deposits her egg in 
the nest of this Pipit. Two broods are sometimes reared in the 
season; and in September the southward migration commences. 
In winter the bird is described by Mr. Brooks as frequenting paddy- 
grounds and vetch-fields in Bengal, where it is very wary, keeping a 
sharp look-out, with head erect and outstretched neck; but Col. 
Legge found it very tame in the wet pastures of Ceylon. Its usual 
call-note is loud, and calculated to attract attention, while it has also 
a soft double chirp like that of a Bunting. The ordinary flight 
is undulating and strong. Col. Legge says this bird feeds on 
worms and grasshoppers, and often seizes a passing butterfly or 
insect on the wing. The name was conferred in honour of 
M. Richard, of Lunéville in Lorraine. 
The male in breeding-plumage has the feathers of the upper 
parts sandy-brown with dark centres, producing a mottled Lark-like 
appearance ; rump nearly uniform brown, tail-coverts striated ; wing- 
coverts tipped with reddish-buff ; secondaries broadly—and primaries 
faintly—margined with buffish-white; outer pair of tail-feathers 
nearly white, with only a narrow dusky margin to the inner web; in 
the second pair the dusky margin extends nearly to the tip, and 
the shaft also is brown; remaining tail-feathers very dark brown, 
with pale and often buffish margins to the central pair ; chin white ; 
a dotted line of brown spots from the base of the bill down each 
side of the neck to the gorget, which is still more spotted on a buff 
ground-colour extending down the flanks; abdomen dull white; 
bill dark brown above, yellowish below; legs and feet yellowish- 
brown ; hind claw generally longer than the toe. Length 7°25 in. ; 
wing 3°75 in. The female is smaller, but similar in plumage. In 
autumn a decidedly more rufous tint pervades the upper and, still 
more, the under parts. In the young the pale margins to the upper 
feathers and the streaks on the under parts are more pronounced. 
A specimen in my collection, which I take to be a bird of the 
previous year, obtained at Malaga on March 15th, is renewing its 
tail-feathers. 
