BIRDS 1 1 5 



closely observed a Ei chard's Pipit on their farm at Aigle Gill, 

 of which they gave me an excellent description both in writing 

 and orally. They would have shot it at once, had the day not 

 been a Sunday. They postponed shooting it until the following 

 day. Eichard Mann rose early on Monday, but could not find 

 the bird. When at last it was flushed by their dog, it rose wild 

 and flew out of sight. In October 1889, Mr. Nicol saw a 

 Eichard's Pipit, as he assured me, on Skinburness Marsh. 

 Having watched it for some minutes, he was about to fire, when 

 the bird flew across a large creek and he lost the opportunity. 

 Again, in September 1891, I flushed one of these Pipits twice 

 on the coast at Bowness on Solway. It was twice marked down, 

 and once it rose almost at my feet, so that the Eev. F. 0. Pickard- 

 Cambridge had a good view of it as well as myself. We marked 

 it down, as we thought a third time, but when the only • gun ' 

 in the party came up with us the Eichard's Pipit had disappeared. 

 It was a very different bird from a Skylark, long and slender in 

 shape, and much brighter in colour. The tail of this Pipit looks 

 long in flight. Most likely this Pipit had arrived in a flock of 

 Wheatears which frequented the same ground. When I worked 

 over the identical bit of rough marshy ground two days later, 

 I found that both the Wheatears and the Eichard's Pipit had 

 disappeared. 



EOCK PIPIT. 



Anthus obscurus (Lath.). 



There is only one bit of marsh in the English Solway district 

 that holds a pair of Eock Pipits in the breeding-time, at least 

 so far as I have been able to discover. This is a little surprising, 

 because the species is common in the winter-time. You can 

 hardly visit any of the more extensive saltings between October 

 and March without noticing a few Eock Pipits flitting about 

 the creeks. But these birds are winter visitants only, and with- 

 draw in spring to other breeding haunts. Nor is this Pipit 

 plentiful on Walney Island in the summer-time. It breeds 

 there, but only in very small numbers. The chief haunts of our 

 Eock Pipits in summer must be looked for upon the red sand- 



