NOTES AND QUERIES. 353 



figured by Mr. Booth. At the whaling station I also saw a single example 

 of a large bright yellowish-brown Pipit with a strong bill, which was quite 

 unknown to me. Like all the other small birds, it was excessively tame ; 

 so that I was able to watch it, with and without my binocular, at the 

 distance of a few feet. I compared it to a large and very handsome Tree 

 Pipit. Since my return to England I have identified it with the Siberian 

 Pipit (Anthus gustavi), rediscovered by Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown 

 on the Petchora. In this case the range of Anthus gustavi extends much 

 further to the eastward than was supposed, and this is the first recorded 

 example within the Norwegian frontier. — John Cordeaux (Great Cotes 

 House, R.S.O., Lincoln). 



Note on Anthus cervinus. — After reading my remarks on A. cervinus 

 Mr. Coburn was good enough to send his specimen for my inspection. It is 

 paler in colour than any other example I have seen, and I think he was 

 right in stating that it was paler than A. pratensis. Whether his bird is 

 an abnormally light-coloured one or not I cannot say ; its pale coloration 

 arises from the great development of the light edges of the feathers of the 

 back and wings, and the predominance of the light edges of the feathers of 

 the back over the dark feather-centres. Neither Mr. Coburn nor I can detect 

 in his specimen" the almost black broad central marking of the longest pair 

 of the under tail coverts," said to be a distinguishing mark of this species 

 (vide p. 302); although I can find it in my examples of A. cervinus. Yet 

 Mr. Coburn's bird was undoubtedly correctly named. The very light colour 

 of the edges of the feathers of the mantle and wings, together with the boldly 

 marked rump and upper tail-coverts, and the absence of the oil-green tinge 

 on the upper parts, all point to this conclusion. Mr. Coburn's bird well 

 exemplifies the character of a " brighter, more brilliant, and more striking 

 bird than A. pratensis." To my eye the difference in the arrangement of 

 the markings of the throat and upper breast (I should have added face and 

 sides of the head — plainer and less marked in A. cervinus, and the ear-coverts 

 light brown — in my former note) is also apparent, although it is much less 

 so than in some other examples, and Mr. Coburn writes that he did not 

 detect it. Mr. Coburn's bird is probably a bird of the year which had not 

 long completed its autumn moult when it was killed. This would account 

 for the very extensive feather-edgings which in the Pipits gradually wear 

 away as the season advances. It is this abrasion of the feathers which gives 

 such entirely different characters to the plumage of the upper parts in Pipits 

 in autumn and in spring. — 0. V. Apltn (Bloxham, Oxon). 



Nesting of Summer Migrants. — A plausible reason for the promptness 



with which the Spotted Flycatcher sets about nesting operations on arriving 



in our midst may be found, I venture to suggest, in the very fact of its tardy 



advent. The season is then advancing apace, and domestic cares are not 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL, XX. SEPT. 1896. 2 E 



