NOTES AND QUERIES. 379 



Scandinavian Pipits. — The question raised by Mr. Cordeaux in his 

 interesting remarks on Scandinavian Pipits, viz. whether the Alpine or 

 Water Pipit (Anthus spipoletta) is found in Scandinavia or not, has often 

 occurred to me. I am inclined to think that it is. The birds described by 

 Seebohm as having the under parts scarcely differing from those of A. spipo- 

 letta, the streaks being nearly obsolete, and the colour of the breast pale 

 chestnut-buff, were, I think, so much like A. spipoletta, that if they were 

 not actually identical with that species, it would appear to be almost im- 

 possible to distinguish between A. spipoletta and some forms of A. obscurus, 

 except by the colour of the outer tail-feathers — and even this seems to be 

 not always a quite constant feature. Seebohm does not say precisely 

 where his specimens were obtained, but we may gather that it was some- 

 where in Arctic Europe ; and Mr. Cordeaux has found the same form of 

 Pipit on the Varanger Fjord, and has described it more fully. Apart from 

 the colour of the tail (doubtful), Mr. Cordeaux's birds agree exactly with 

 the description of A. spipoletta, except that the under parts seem to have 

 been a little paler. It is true that Seebohm says that his birds were con- 

 nected by a series of intermediate examples with the typical form, and that 

 the colour of the outer tail-feather remained quite typical; whereas the 

 patch on the outer part of the outside tail-feather in A. spipoletta is white. 

 But Seebohm treats the form of A. obscurus found in Great Britain as the 

 typical one, and he makes no special mention of the form found on the 

 Norwegian coast (birds in autumn almost exactly like ours do occur on the 

 west coast of Norway), and known as A. rupestris ; however, the birds 

 Seebohm found, " together with the typical form, in the Varanger Fjord," 

 which had " the ground colour of the under parts almost pure white," were 

 doubtless A. rupestris, although this author says nothing of the greyness 

 of the upper parts, and the more conspicuous light eye-stripe. The inter- 

 mediate forms* which he refers to as connecting the typical A. obscurus 

 with the form coloured very similarly to A. spipoletta, are apparently very 

 rarely procured. A bird possibly of the form known as A. rupestris, killed on 

 the Norfolk coast in February, now in my possession, has the crown, occiput, 

 and cheeks changing to a decided clear grey, eye-stripe nearly white and 

 conspicuous, back of a slightly greyer shade than our bird's, throat lighter, 

 almost unmarked and with a warmer sandy tinge, under parts very slightly 

 more distinctly marked. This is in comparison with a January-killed 

 specimen from the east coast of Scotland. Seebohm concludes that the 



* It is possible that these so-called intermediate examples were birds 

 which, either from season or age, had not acquired their fully adult breeding 

 dress. It should not be forgotten that A. spipoletta in winter has spotted 

 under parts, and that remains of these spots are sometimes to be seen after 

 the breeding dress has been assumed, and the ground colour of the under 

 parts has become pinkish buff. 



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