ANTHUS CERVINUS. 



Red-throated Pipit, 



Motacilla cervina, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., torn. i. p. 511. 



Alauda Ccecilii, Aud. Hist, de l'Egypte, Ois. tab. v. nV 6. 



Anthus rufogularis, Brehm, Lehrb., vol. ii. p. 963.— Id. Vog. Deutschl., p. 320. 



Cecili, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 324. 



cervinus.Kejs, et Bias. Wirb. Eur., p. 172.-Midd. Sib. Reise, vol. ii. p. 165, pi. xiv. figs. l-3.-Bonap 



Consp. Gen. Av, torn. i. p. 248, Anthus, sp. 4. -Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 14.-Swinh. Proc of Zool 

 Soc, 1863, pp. 273, 334.-Id. Ibis, 1863, p. 311.-Sperl. Ibis, 1864, p. 279—Trist. Proc. of Zool. Soc, 

 1864, p. 435.-Id. Ibis, 1866, p. 290.-Bree, Hist, of Eur. Birds not obs. in Brit. Isl., vol. ii. p. 155, 

 and fig. 



pratensis rufigularis, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d'Eur., p. xxxvi. 



Considerable confusion exists respecting the synonymy, the correct specific appellation, and the specific 

 value of this pretty Pipit, some ornithologists believing it to be merely a variety of Anthus pratensis. 



With regard to the synonymy, Professor Newton, in a letter to me, says, " The right name to be used for 

 this species is a point on which I cannot exactly satisfy myself. Brehm's rufogularis appeared in his ' Lehr- 

 buch' (vol. ii. p. 963) in 1824, while Pallas's cervina was only published in 1831 (Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., vol. i. 

 p. 511), though it had been in type since 1811. But I suspect the Anthus Ccscilii of Audouin to be the same 

 species ; and if so, I imagine that name will have unquestionable priority. I have not, however, been able 

 to refer to the letterpress of the ' Description de l'Egypte ' to see if the bird is therein properly described." 



Professor Newton, however, in his interesting account of his discovery of the breeding bird, published in 

 Dr. Bree's ' History of the Birds of Europe not found in the British Isles ' (vol. ii. p. 155), uses Pallas's 

 name of cervina ; and so also do Bonaparte, Dr. Blasius, Dr. Bree, Mr. G. R. Gray, and Dr. Cabanis ; while 

 Dr. Schlegel and others either regard the bird as identical with A. pratensis, as a variety of that species, or 

 adopt Pastor Brehm's name of rufogularis. With regard to its specific distinctness, I have no more doubt 

 than, from the paragraph hereafter quoted, will be found to exist in the mind of Professor Newton. 



I cannot agree with Dr. Bree that it " belongs to the Rock-Pipit branch of the family, its claws being much 

 curved," and that " there has been much confusion about the bird in consequence of this fact being over- 

 looked ; " in point of fact, it is as slender in form, and as delicate in the structure of its legs and hind toe as 

 our own Titlark, and, moreover, has the hinder claw of the same lengthened and slender form as in that bird. 



With regard to the parts of the Old World inhabited by this species, the testimony of those who have ob- 

 served it in a state of nature gives Eastern Europe in winter, and Lapland, Finmark, Northern Russia, and 

 Siberia as the countries frequented by it in summer, in all of which it probably breeds. That it also frequents 

 the Crimea at the same season is certain, since the specimens from which my figures were taken were 

 obtained there at that period of the year. Dr. Jerdon considers the Indian bird of this form, to which 

 Mr. Hodgson assigned the specific term rosaceus, to be identical with A. cervinus ; but I have never seen an 

 individual of the latter from any part of India, and have no doubt that Mr. Hodgson was correct in charac- 

 terizing the Indian bird as distinct. 



The recorded information respecting the history of this species is but scanty, little having been written on the 

 subject except by Professor Newton ; I shall therefore take the liberty of extracting the greater part of his notes 

 from Dr. Bree's work above quoted. 



Dr. Bree, after remarking that the bird is found plentifully in Egypt, Nubia, Greeee, Turkey, and Barbary 

 during the winter, says, " I have been favoured with the following interesting account of its discovery in East 

 Finmark by Alfred Newton, Esq." : — " On the 22nd of June, 1855, a few days after our arrival at Wadso, 

 Mr. W. H. Simpson and I, in the course of a bird's-nesting walk to the north-east of the town, to the distance 

 perhaps of a couple of English miles, came upon a bog, the appearance of which held out greater promise to 

 our ornithological appetites than we had hitherto met with in Norway. We had crossed the meadows near 

 the houses, where Temminck's Stint and the Shore-Lark were trilling out their glad notes, and were traversing 

 a low ridge of barren moor, when the solicitude of a pair of Golden Plovers plainly told us that their eggs or 

 young were near us. ... A little while after, as I was cautiously picking my way over the treacherous 

 ground, I saw a Pipit dart out from beneath my feet, and alight again close by, in a manner that I was sure could 

 only be that of a sitting hen. I had but to step off the grass-grown hillock on which I was standing, to see the 

 nest ensconced in a little nook, half covered by herbage. But the appearance of the eggs took me by surprise ; 

 for they were unlike any I knew— of a brown colour, indeed, but of a brown so warm that I could only liken it 

 to that of old mahogany-wood, and compare them, in my mind, with those of the Lapland Bunting. However, 

 there was the bird, running about so close to me that, with my glass, I could see her almost as well as if she had 



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