166 



WATER PIPIT. 



wliich. my attention has been drawn by Mr. A. Newton. 

 "Anthus Pennsylvanica, (A. Ludovicianus . J Specific 

 cliaracters.^Bill and feet blackish; longest tertial one 

 line shorter than the longest primary. The light 

 marking on the outer tail feathers shining white, and 

 on the outermost one involving the half of the feather, 

 — its shaft for the most part white. Body above olive 

 green, the superciliary stripe yellowish." 



Brehm (Biideker's eggs,) describes the two birds 

 separately, and he refers to the original description by 

 Linnaeus, as Alauda sphioletta, who pointed out as 

 habitats the residence of this bird and not the Amer- 

 ican European straggler. 



Assuming, then, the two birds to be distinct, and yet 

 as closely-allied as the representatives of the two species 

 of the Old and New Worlds so frequently are, the ques- 

 tion arises, which of them is the bird which has been 

 introduced into the British lists? Mr. Morris has given 

 a figure of neither. His bird is evidently a specimen 

 of Antlius cervinus. But Mr. Macgillivray distinctly 

 describes with much clearness and at great length the 

 American species, and he concludes by saying that the 

 two birds shot near Edinburgh^ are perfectly identical 

 with the description taken by him from American 

 specimens in Audubon's "Synopsis." 



The "Water Pipit" or "Mountain Pipit," or as it 

 was called by Latham, "Meadow Lark," is an inhabi- 

 tant during the breeding-season and summer of the 

 Swiss Alps, the Tyrol, the Pyrenees, and other high 

 mountainous districts. In the autumn and winter it 

 descends to the plains, and then gains its title to a 

 "Water Pipit," by living along the course of rivers. 

 It is found in Sweden, and in the mountains of 

 Bavaria and Italy, and has occasionally, but rarely. 



