158 RED-THROATED PIPIT. 



A Dunlin's nest was speedily found, and the bird pro- 

 cured to identify it, for we had hopes of all sorts of 

 waders in that remote district. A little while after, as 

 I was cautiously picking my way over the treacherous 

 ground, I saw a Pipit dart out from beneath my feet, 

 and alight again close by, in a manner which I was 

 sure could only be that of a sitting hen. I had but to 

 step off the grass-grown hillock on which I was standing, 

 to see the nest ensconced in a little nook, half-covered 

 by herbage. But the appearance of the eggs took me 

 by surprise, they were unlike any I knew, of a brown 

 colour indeed, but of a brown so warm, that I could 

 only liken it to that of old mahogany wood, and com- 

 pare them in my mind with those of the Lapland 

 Bunting. However there was the bird running about 

 so close to me, that with my glass I could see her almost 

 as well as if she had been in my hand. That she was 

 a Pipit was undeniable, and thoughts of a species till 

 then unseen by me, began to dawn upon my imagina- 

 tion. I replaced the eggs without disturbing the nest, 

 and carefully marking the spot, we retired. In half an 

 hour or so we returned, going softly to the place, and 

 Mr. Simpson reaching his arm over the protecting has- 

 sock of grass, dexterously secured the bird in his hand 

 as she was taking flight. I then at once knew, from 

 her pale fawn-coloured throat, that the nest we had found 

 belonged to a species which up to that time I believed 

 had been known in Europe only as an accidental visi- 

 tant, — the Motacilla cercina of Pallas, the A. rufogularis 

 of Brehm. 



A day or two later Mr. John WoUey returned from 

 a Swan-upping expedition he had been making in the 

 territories of our then imperial enemy. He told us that 

 previous to his starting he had shot, somewhere in the 



