9 
ROCK-PIPIT. 
detect. Many were placed among the fallen masonry in the old fortifications, and in parts of the buildings 
where stones had been dislodged from the walls. I stumbled upon one or two among the accumulation of old 
rubbish in the passages in the ruins, which had been built in almost total darkness. They also resort to the 
cracks and ledges on the face of the rock, especially on the south side. 
On one occasion I discovered a brood, just ready to fly, on a small exposed rock that formed part of the 
ledge on which the beacon stands, a short distance east of Tantallon. In this instance it was certainly a 
marvel how the young had escaped destruction from the waves. The whole of the rock that was above water 
at high tides was hut ten or a dozen yards in circumference ; and I watched the seas washing up within a foot 
of the bottom of the nest. The bird had made a most cunning choice of a situation. The nest was placed 
in a slight hollow in the side of the rock that looked towards the shore, from which it was distant about one 
hundred yards. An overhanging slab of stone formed a covering towards the north-east, from which quarter 
the heaviest swells rolled towards the land. Rut one small tuft of vegetation struggled for existence on this 
diminutive islet; and behind its scanty shelter the nest was located. A few days after I discovered the young 
birds they quitted the nest in safety, a result that could scarcely have been anticipated had a heavy gale from 
the north or east set in. I repeatedly remarked that on this part of the coast the birds appeared to have a 
preference for the islands; possibly the number of rats along the shores of the mainland may have influenced 
their selection. 
Along the flat shores of the east of Ross-shirc I occasionally noticed this species during autumn and early 
spring on the shores of the firths and the numerous marshy pools. They frequent the Cromarty rocks 
overhanging the Moray Firth and many points along the rocky coasts of Caithness and Sutherland; but I 
never spent any time in searching out their nests in these localities. On the small islands off the west coast of 
Iioss-shire, it was almost impossible during the spring to wander any distance among the heather and rough 
stones without disturbing several of these Pipits from their nests. 
The bird to which the name of Scandinavian Rock-Pipit has been given is merely, in my own opinion, a 
variety of this species*. Early in March I have shot numbers of specimens which plainly showed that the 
winter dress was identical with that of this bird, only a few of the vinous feathers being visible at that period; 
on several I procured, only one or two of these feathers could be found. I also obtained specimens exhibiting 
the change in every stage. In two or three instances the plumage closely approached that of the Water-Pipit 
{Anthus spipolelta ) ; a few spots or clouded markings, however, were always visible among the feathers on the 
breast. As spring advances the vinous tint gradually spreads over the whole of the breast, and the back of 
the head and neck becomes a bluish grey. The numbers of this variety that appear on our shores arc very 
uncertain. I have met with them during some seasons in great abundance, while the following year hardly 
a bird would be recognized. The first arrivals may he looked for — or rather, I ought to say, might have been 
looked for (as I have not identified a single specimen for the last ten years) soon after the beginning of 
March ; and for about a month or six weeks from that date they would be seen making their way along the 
coast. As a rule, they appeared to fly against the wind, and were mostly observed on thick foggy mornings. 
On the Kith of March 1866 (a light wind from the west and weather dull and cloudy) I watched a party of 
between twenty and thirty of these Pipits collected round a pool of brackish water just inside the sea-beach 
at Portslade, near Brighton. Immense numbers of Meadow-Pipits, as well as these birds in all stages of 
plumage, were continually landing till nine or ten o’clock, after which hour they ceased crossing. In the 
spring of 1867, though I kept a constant watch on all the likely spots along the same range of coast-line, I 
did not meet with above a dozen specimens. These were particularly backward in their plumage, and but one 
* I conclude it is the Pipit known to continental naturalists as Anthus rupestris. It seems also, in certain stages of plumage, greatly to 
resemble Anthus aquations. Possibly those two scientific names have in some instances been bestowed on one and the same form, which is in 
reality only a variety of Anthus obscurus. 
