The American Pipit 
pranks which are part and parcel of Titmouse character. The testimony 
of the Wren-Tit’s egg, moreover, is flatly against any such association. 
Its sheer greenness (niagara green) of color is not hinted at anywhere 
among the Troglodytidce, Sywiidce, or Paridce , and the bird must plainly 
have derived elsewhere. 
The surmise that the Wren-Tit is of remote Asiatic origin is probably 
a correct one. Somewhere among the Timeliidce, that dump-heap of 
despairing taxonomists, will be found the nearest of kin to these long 
absent but most contented waifs. One almost dares to dream of some 
ancient shipwreck, a tree-top, wrested by flood, blown over from far 
Formosa, or a Chinese junk stranded at Monterey, but with all hands 
saved down to the occupants of a gilded bird-cage. A slender chance, 
to be sure, but in some such way even the islands of mid-ocean have 
been populated. The Drepanidce, for example, now the dominant family 
of land birds on the Hawaiian Islands, are believed by some to have 
derived from American stock akin to the Cceribidce. Be that as it may, 
California now boasts the only exclusive family of birds to be found 
in North America. 
No. 161 
American Pipit 
A. O. U. No. 697. Anthus spinoletta rubescens (Tunstall). 
Synonyms.— American Titlark. Brown Lark. Louisiana Pipit. 
Description. —Adult in spring: Above soft and dark grayish brown with an olive 
shade; feathers of crown and back with darker centers; wings and tail dusky with paler 
edging, the pale tips of coverts forming two indistinct bars; outer pair of tail-feathers 
extensively white; next pair white-tipped; superciliary line, eye-ring, and underparts 
light grayish brown or light cinnamon buffy (sometimes chamois or honey-yellow)— 
the underparts streaked with dusky except on middle of throat, belly, and crissum, 
heavily on sides of throat and across breast, narrowly on lower breast and sides—or 
sometimes, in very old birds (?), nearly immaculate. Winter plumage: Above browner; 
below paler buffy; more broadly streaked on breast. Length 152.4-177.8 (6.00-7.00); 
wing 85.6 (3.37); tail 64.3 (2.53) ; bill 12 (.47); tarsus 21.7 (.85). 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size; brown above; buffy or brownish with 
dusky spots below; best known by tlip-yip notes repeated when rising from ground or 
flying overhead. 
Nesting. —Not known to breed in California. Nest: At high altitudes, a thick- 
walled structure of grasses and moss set into deep excavation in sloping hillside or in 
cranny of cliff. Eggs: 4-6, usually 5, so heavily speckled and spotted with reddish or 
dark brown as almost entirely to obscure the whitish ground-color. Often, except upon 
close examination, the effect is of a uniform chocolate-colored egg. Av. size 19.6 x 14.5 
(.77 x .57). Season: June 15-Jidy 25; one brood. 
