BIRDS OF NEW YORK 469 



Anthus rubescens (Tunstall) 

 Pipit 



Plate 69 



Alauda rubescens Tunstall. Om. Britannica. 1771. 2 

 Anthus ludovicianus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 76, fig. 99 

 Anthus rubescens A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 328. No. 697 

 dnthus, Gr., avOo?, some kind of a small bird; rubescens, Lat., becoming red 



Description. Upper parts grayish brown; centers of the feathers 

 showing obscure dusky shaft streaks; wings and tail fuscous; wing coverts 

 tipped with bufEy and wing feathers edged with the same; a buffy super- 

 ciliary line ; under parts varying from dull white to buff or even ocherous ; 

 streaked with blackish on the breast and sides; the 2 outer tail feathers largely 

 white. Fall specimens are browner on the upper parts; spring birds often 

 slaty gray. Sexes alike. Hind claw elongated. 



Length 6.25-7 inches; extent 10.25-11; wing 3.25-3.50; tail 2.75-3; 

 bill .5; tarsus .9. 



Distribution. The Pipit is an arctic species, breeding in northern 

 Alaska, Mackenzie, west coast of Davis strait, west coast of Greenland, 

 south to Great Slave lake, central Keewatin and Newfoundland, occasionally 

 south in the mountains to California, Colorado and New Mexico. Winters 

 from southern California, Ohio and New Jersey to the gulf coast and 

 Guatemala. In New York State it is an abundant transient visitant in 

 suitable localities, arriving on the coast of Long Islaind from the 12th to 

 the 29th of March and disappearing from the 15th to the 25th of April, 

 a few sometimes remaining until the 3d or even the 27th of May. In 

 western New York the spring migration occurs mostly in April, but the 

 species is much less common in the interior of the State during the spring 

 than during the fall migration. Records from Erie and Monroe counties 

 vary from the 15th of April to the 12th of May. In the fall the Pipit 

 makes its appearance from the i6th to the 24th of September, sometimes 

 as early as the 6th, and departs for the south from the 25th of October to 

 the 1 6th or even the 30th of November, a few individuals remaining 

 throughout the winter on the tidal fiats of Long Island. During the fall 



