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been in my hand. I replaced the eggs without disturbing the nest, and, carefully marking the spot, we 

 retired. In half an hour or so we returned, going softly to the place, and Mr. Simpson, reaching his arm over 

 the protecting hassock of grass, dexterously secured the bird in his hand as she was taking flight. I then 

 at once knew, from her pale fawn-coloured throat, that the nest we had found belonged to a species which, up 

 to that time, I believed had been known in Europe only as an accidental visitant — the Motacilla cervina of 

 Pallas, the Anthus rufogularis of Brehm. 



" In a week's time we were quartered at Nyborg, a small settlement at the head of the Waranger Fjord. 

 Here willows and birches grew with far greater luxuriance, even at the water's edge, than lower down the 

 inlet. Some even attained to nearly twice the height of a man, and formed thickets which, the intervening 

 spaces being exceedingly boggy, were not easily explored. In this secluded spot we found our red-throated 

 friend not unplentiful. We could scarcely go out of the house without seeing one ; and in the immediate 

 neighbourhood we procured several more identified nests, making a total of five, and a fine series of nine 

 birds, all of course in their breeding-plumage. We had also abundant opportunities of watching their habits, 

 and, above all, of contrasting them with those of the Titlark {A. pratensis), which was not uncommon in the 

 district, and to which this species has been so unjustly annexed as a variety. The two birds had, according 

 to our observation, an entirely different range, A. pratensis haunting a station less wooded (saving the expres- 

 sion) than that of A. cermnus, which latter we found at times feeding on the sea-shore, a habit we did not 

 notice the former to indulge in. No one with ears, either, could for a moment be in doubt about their respec- 

 tive notes. It is true that the full song of A. cermnus did not differ so strikingly from the more feeble 

 performance of A. pratensis as does, for instance, the joyous burst of A. arboreus ; but it had an unmistakable 

 resemblance to the louder and perhaps harsher strains of A. obscurus, and in all cases was sufficiently charac- 

 teristic for one to be quite certain as to the nature of the performer, even when the individual was not in 

 sight. In a word, none of our party had any hesitation as to regarding A. cermnus as a perfectly good species. 



"A young bird was obtained at Morten snaes, between Wadso and Nyborg, on the 16th of July ; and as it 

 was attended by its parents (both of which were well seen by Mr. Wolley and myself), it could only have 

 just left the nest ; it appeared to differ from the young of the Titlark merely in being of a ruddier com- 

 plexion. ... I have already mentioned what the eggs looked like ; and it would be difficult, in words, to 

 convey a better idea of them. All the nests I saw w r ere simply built of dry bents, without any lining of fea- 

 thers or hair. 



" I may, however, add that it was only in this restricted locality, in East Finmark — between Wadso and 

 Nyborg — that we saw this bird, and I believe Mr. Wolley never met with it elsewhere. ... At Stockholm, I 

 saw, in the possession of Conservator Meves, the ingenious discoverer of the cause of the bleating noise made 

 by the Common Snipe, a living Red-throated Pipit, which had been taken in a garden near that town, where, 

 I believe, it not unfrequently occurs in its autumnal migration." 



Middendorff, who considers A. rufogularis and A. cermnus to be identical, says of the latter, " This bird 

 was found in both north and south Siberia. I shot a female in the Stanowoj mountains, on the 26th of May, 

 consequently not on the passage. The rust-yellow of the Siberian specimen has a somewhat violet tint, very 

 similar to the colour on the breast of the Turtle Dove ; it covers the cheeks near the eyes, the breast, 

 flanks, neck, and upper part of the breast. It is only found in this plumage from May to July." 



The Rev. H. B. Tristram obtained a single specimen only on the coast of the plain of Sharon in winter 

 — that is, in the month of February. 



Mr. Swinhoe states that it is " a winter bird in South China and Formosa, which passes the summer in 

 Kamtschatka and the northern regions. Flocks pass over Amoy as late as the first week in May. Before 

 leaving China the bird undergoes an entire moult, when the eyebrows, throat, and breast show a pale 

 vinaceous mixed with more or less ochreous, but unspotted. As the nuptial season comes on, the silvery 

 tinge intensifies into a uniform dusky vinaceous, which encroaches further on the lower parts. I have a fine 

 series, showing every gradation between the pale-spotted winter and the fine nuptial dress." 



The male has the head, neck, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts olive, with a broad stripe of dark brown 

 down the centre of each feather, even on those of the rump ; wing-coverts dark brown, tipped with creamy 

 white ; primaries brown, with paler edges ; tertiaries very dark brown, bordered with light greyish brown ; 

 tail brown, the two centre feathers edged with tawny, and the outer one white, with a streak of brown down 

 the margin of the inner web ; the next with a triangular spot of white at the tip ; throat, cheeks, and breast 

 rufous, with a gorget formed by longitudinal streaks of brown across the latter ; abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts pale fawn-colour, streaked on the flanks with dark brown. 



In the female the rufous colouring is confined to the throat and cheeks, and the breast is more thickly 

 streaked with dark brown ; in other respects the plumage resembles that of the male. 



The figures are of the natural size. The plant is the Primula Scotica. 



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