ROCK PIPIT. 



427 



ROCK OUZEL.— A name for the Ring- Blackbird. 

 ROCK PIPIT {Anthus rupestris, Nilsson.) 



*Anthus aquaticus, Bechst. Natuig. Deut. 3. p. 745 — Anthus petrosus, Flem. Br. 

 Anim. p. 74 — Anthus rupestris, Nils. Orn. Suec. 1. p. 245. sp. 115. — Alauda 

 campestris spinoletta, Gmel. Syst. 1. p„ 79. sp. 4. var. B. — Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 

 p. 495. sp. 12. var. B. — Alauda petrosa, Trans. Linn. Soc. 4. p. 41. — Alauda 

 obscura, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 801. sp. 33.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 494. sp. 7.— 

 Pipit Spioncelle, Temm. Man d'Orn. 1 . p. 265. — Wasser Pieper, Meyer, Tas- 

 schenb. Deut. 1. p. 258. — Dusky Lark, Lewins Br. Birds, 3. t. 94. — Don. Br. 

 Birds, 4. t. 76.— Rock Lark, Mont. Orn. Diet.— Sea Lark, Wale. Syn. t. 193. 

 — Field or Rock Lark, Bewick's Supp. to Br. Birds, p. t. 2Q.— Selby, pi. 49. fig. 

 6. p. 214. 



This species appears to have remained long either unnoticed, or con- 

 founded with others, by the early ornithologists. Mr. Lewin, in his 

 work on British Birds, first gave a figure and description of it, by the 

 name of the dusky lark, which was adopted by him at the suggestion 

 of our author.* 



The length of this species is six inches and three quarters ; weight 

 about seven drams. The bill is dusky, near seven-eighths of an inch long, 

 from the apex to the corner of the mouth ; irides hazel : upper part of 

 the head, back of the neck, and tail coverts, are of a dark brown ; back 

 and scapulars of the same colour, obscurely marked with dusky strokes ; 

 above the eye and beneath the ear is a lightish-coloured stroke ; the 

 throat whitish ; breast and belly yellowish white, the former blotched 

 with large dusky spots ; the sides marked with strokes of the same ; 

 under tail coverts light brown ; the two middle feathers of the tail 

 dark brown, the others dusky ; outer one of a dirty yellow, white on 

 the interior of the web and the point of the exterior ; in the second 

 feather the light colour is just visible at the end ; the quill-feathers and 

 coverts are dusky, slightly edged with light brown ; legs and toes 

 dusky ; claws black ; hind claw four-tenths of an inch long, and some- 

 what crooked. 



Both sexes are alike. 



The young birds are not maturely feathered till after the winter of 

 the first year ; till then the upper parts have a tinge of olivaceous ash- 

 colour ; beneath the lighter parts are yellowish, and the coverts of the 

 wings more deeply margined with light brown ; the base of the under 

 mandible and legs less dusky. 



We discovered these birds in great plenty on the coast of South 

 Wales, where it was known by some of the natives by the name of 

 rock lark ; and afterwards found it not uncommon on all the coasts 

 from Kent to the Land's-End in Cornwall, where the shores were 

 abrupt ; and have no doubt it inhabits most of the rocky shores through- 

 out the kingdom. It seems wholly confined to the neighbourhood of 



