ALPINE PIPIT. 249 



plains of North-west India. The Nearctic form of the Alpine Pipit^ 

 A. spinoletta var. ludovicianus , breeds in Alaska^ Canada^ and Labrador^ 

 and the most northern and westerly United States. It winters in the 

 States and Central America, and has occurred in Greenland and the 

 Bermudas. Its alleged occurrences in the British Islands appear to be 

 doubtful j but it has certainly been found on Heligoland, and I have there- 

 fore deemed it expedient to figure its egg (Plate 14) . Westwards its range 

 extends across Behring's Straits into North-east Asia, as it is a common 

 winter visitor to the Kurile Islands and Japan, and was obtained by 

 Swinhoe in South China. Strange to say. Brooks found this form in 

 winter in the Himalayas and the valley of the Indus : one of these 

 examples in my collection is absolutely indistinguishable from skins 

 from Japan and Massachusetts. The European Alpine Pipit varies in 

 length of wing from 3'6 to 3'3 inch, and in length of tail from 2'85 to 

 2'55 inch. Indian birds vary in length of wing from 3'4 to 3'1 inch, and 

 in length of tail from 2'65 to 2"45 inch. The Nearctic and Japanese birds 

 do not differ from the eastern birds in size, but are darker and less sandy 

 in colour on the upper parts, and in winter plumage slightly buffer on the 

 underparts *. 



The Alpine Pipit has often been called the Water-Pipit, a title which is 

 not only misleading, but has so often been applied to the Rock-Pipit, 

 which really deserves the appellation, that, to avoid confusion in the future, 

 I have adopted a name which is expressive of the habits of the bird. 



Although the Alpine Pipit is very closely allied to the Rock-Pipit, the 

 breeding-haunts of the two birds are very distinct. The latter keeps to 

 the rocky coasts throughout the year ; but the Alpine Pipit, although 



* The affinity between A. spinoletta and A. ludovicianus haa been overlooked by 

 ornitbologista, in consequence of tiie omission of American writers to describe the summer 

 plumao-e of the latter bird. It is very extraordinary that two such careful writers as 

 Messrs. Baird and Eidgway should have been guilty of such an unpardonable omission. 

 It is true that a bird in nearly full summer plumage was figured by Swainson and 

 Richardson (Faun. Bor.-Amer. ii. pi. 44) ; but so absolutely ignorant were English 

 ornithologists of the summer plumage of this species that Dresser, in his ' Birds of 

 Europe,' actually suggests that the figure is taken from a European example of the Alpine 

 Pipit which was exchanged for the original skin after the collection was forwarded to 

 England. Fortunately, however, Mr. Frank M. Drew, in his "Field Notes on the 

 Birds of San Juan County, Colorado " (Bull. Nutt. Orn. vi. p. 88), remarks that " some 

 birds," doubtless adults in full breeding-plumage, " have not the least trace of a spotting on 

 the breast," while others, doubtless September and October birds and young birds in 

 breeding- plumage, " are heavily spotted." 



It is impossible to suggest any explanation of the unaccountable blunder of Professor 

 Newton, who states positively, in his article on the Meadow-Pipit, that the Anthus 

 pratensis japonicus of Temminck and Schlegel is the Red-throated Pipit. To this species 

 the Japan bird has no resemblance whatever ; it is absolutely indistinguishable from the 

 Pennsylvanian Pipit, but might be confused by a careless observer with the Alpine Pipit. 



