234 BRITISH BIRDS. 



may be conspecific. The most distinct of these is Anthus rufulus, a small 

 race, which appears to be confined to India, Burma, Siam, the Malay 

 peninsula, Sumatra, and possibly some of the other islands of the Malay 

 archipelago. It is not known that this form diflPers from its near ally in 

 any particular except in size. It varies in length of wing from 3 to 3^ 

 inches, whilst that of Richard's Pipit varies from 3g to 4 inches. Inter- 

 mediate forms, however, occasionally occur both in India and in China, 

 which vary in length of wing from 3:|^ to 3^ inches. In the latter country 

 they have been named A. chinensis. Another species which has been still 

 more confused with Richard's Pipit is not quite so nearly allied. A. 

 striolatus* has almost the same geographical distribution, breeding in 

 Dauria and Eastern and Western Turkestan, and wintering in India, British 

 Burma, Ceylon, and the Andaman Islands. This species differs in being 

 on an average slightly smaller than A. richardi, and varies in length of wing 

 from 3j to 3| inches. It has also a relatively shorter tarsus, which varies 

 in A. striolatus from "95 to I'l inch, and in A. richardi from Tl to 1"3 inch. 

 The hind claw of A. striolatus varies from '43 to '6 inch in length, whilst 

 that of A. richardi varies from -6 to "75 inch. The amount of white on 

 the penultimate tail-feather is generally less than an inch in A. striolatus, 

 and from an inch and a half to two inches in A. richardi; but exceptions 

 to this rule often occur. The other characters are scarcely more constant, 

 and it is often impossible to say to which species some examples ought to 

 be referred. A. striolatus is represented in South Africa by A caffer, a 

 species so closely allied to it that I am unable to find the slightest difference 

 between them. 



Richard's Pipit is essentially a steppe bird, like the Tawny Pipit, but, 

 unlike that species, it neglects the dry and sterile plains and chooses only 

 those which are well watered. It delights in wet pastures and rich 

 meadows left for hay in northern climates, where the harvest is late and 

 it can build its nest in the long grass, and rear its young before the mowers 

 come to disturb it, and where it can find abundance of food on the short 

 grass after the hay is cleared away, just when its young are most voracious. 

 These conditions it finds to perfection in the flat meadows ihat stretch 

 away, often for miles, on the banks of the great rivers of Central Siberia, 

 and which are overflowed for some days when summer suddenly comes, 

 and the snow melts, and the ice on the river breaks up. I found Richard's 

 Pipit extremely abundant in the meadows on the banks of the Yenesay, 

 near Yenesaisk. The country is almost a dead flat for miles, and is inter- 

 sected with half dried-up river-beds and chains of swampy lakes, full of tall 

 sedges and reeds and water-plants of various kinds, and half concealed by 

 willow bushes and alders, whilst far away in the distance the horizon is 



* This species is the A. ffodlewsku of Taczanowsky and Severtzow, also probably the 

 A. campestris of Prjevalsky, and possibly the A. eampestris of Finsch. 



