RICHARD S PIPIT. 



15 



tril, five and a half lines ; hinder toe, six and a half lines ; 

 hinder claw, nine lines." 1 These particulars correspond very 

 exactly with a specimen in the Museum of the Zoological 

 Society, which we examined some years ago, and from which 

 we can subjoin that the middle toe and claw measure one 

 inch three lines, and that the whole expanse of the foot is not 

 less than two inches and a half. The beak, in this species, is 

 more like that of a lark than of a Pipit, being thick and 

 blunt, and nearly as stout and large as that of a skylark. 

 The wings are rather short for the size of the bird, and the 

 tail extends nearly two inches beyond their extremities. The 

 tail feathers are nearly of equal length, the central ones being 

 but little shorter than the rest. The longest tertial feather 

 is about two lines shorter than the quills ; the first quill-fea- 

 ther is the longest, the three next decrease in length succes- 

 sively in a trifling degree. 



The following is the description of an adult male : — All the 

 upper plumage brown, each feather tinged at the edge with 

 rust-colour ; the cheeks are reddish-brown ; a whitish streak 

 extends over the eye, and passes above the ear-coverts ; two 

 dark lines take their rise from the base of the beak ; one of 

 these passes to the ear-coverts, the other, composed of a 

 series of small spots, joins and loses itself among the spots 

 with which the breast is overspread. The throat, sides of 

 the neck, and rest of the under parts, are dull white, tinged 

 with rufous upon the flanks and under-co verts of the tail. 

 Upon the breast, is a gorget of dark-brown oblong spots ; 

 the throat is plain white, without spots, and in some speci- 

 mens the breast is strongly tinged with rusty brown. The 

 quill-feathers of the tail are dark brown, with the exception 

 of two on each side, which are partly white, that colour occu- 

 pying a portion of each feather in a slanting direction, the 

 white part being visible when the tail is spread ; the shaft of 

 the outermost feather is white, that of the second black on a 



