ANTHUS CERVINUS. 
Red-throated Pipit. 
Motacilla cervina, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. i. p. 511. 
Alauda Caecilii, Aud. Hist, de I’Egypte, Ois. tab. v. fig. 6. 
Anthus rufogularis, Brehm, Lehrb., vol. ii. p. 963. 
Cecili, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 324. 
cervinits. Keys, et Bias. Wirb. Eur., p. 172. 
pratensis rufigularis, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. xxxvi. 
I FIGURE this very distinct species of Pipit in the ‘ Birds of Great Britain ’ on the authority of one of our 
most experienced and enthusiastic ornithologists, Mr. Harting — ^vrho states in his recently published 
‘ Handbook of British Birds ’ that an example had been killed at Unst, in Shetland, on May 4, 1854 (and 
recorded by him in the ‘ Field ’ for August 26, 18/1), and mentions that another was taken in September of 
the same year near Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. These occurrences need not occasion surprise, since it 
is highly probable that a bird which is frequently found breeding in many parts of Scandinavia should at one 
season or another casually visit Britain. To many of our ornithologists it is unknown except by name ; and 
hence frequent mistakes as to its synonymy have been made. By some writers, both at home and abroad, it 
has been regarded as a variety of our ordinary Pipit (^Anthus pratensis) ; from that bird, however, it differs in 
many partieulars, the most conspicuous of which are its deep vinaceous colouring and the much more decided 
spotting of its back, characters distinguishing it from every other species of the genus. 
As I have no additional information to communicate respecting this Pipit beyond that given in my ‘ Birds 
of Asia ’ from the writings of Professor Newton, Dr. Bree, and others, I am necessitated to repeat here 
much of what 1 have there recorded. 
With regard to the synonymy. Professor Newton, in a letter to me, says, “The right name to be used for 
this species is a point on which 1 cannot exactly satisfy myself. Brehm’s rufogularis appeared in liis ‘ Lehr- 
huch ’ (vol. ii. ]). 963) in 1824, while Pallas’s cervina was only published in 1831 (Zoogr. Rosso-Aslat., vol. i. 
p. 511), though it had been in type since 1811. But I suspect the Anthus Ccecilii of Audouin to be the same 
species ; and if so, I imagine that name will have unquestionable priority. I have not, however, been able 
to refer to the letterpress of the ‘Description de I’Egypte’ to see if the bird is therein properly described.” 
Professor Newton, however, in his interesting account of the discovery of the breeding bird, published in 
Dr. Bree’s ‘ History of the Birds of Europe not found in the British Isles ’ (vol. ii. p. 155), uses Pallas’s 
name of cervina ; and so also do Bonaparte, Dr. Blasius, Dr. Bree, Mr. G. R. Gray, and Dr. Cabanis ; while 
Dr. Schlegel and others either regard the bird as identical with A. pratensis, as a variety of that species, or 
adopt Pastor Brehm’s name of rufogularis. ' 
I eannot agree with Dr. Bree that it “ belongs to the Rock-Pipit branch of the family, its claws being much 
curved,” and that “there has been much confusion about the bird in consequence of this fiict being over- 
looked in fact it is as slender in form, and as delicate in the structure of its legs and hind toe as our own 
Titlark, and, moreover, has the hinder claw of the same lengthened and slender form as in that bird. 
With regard to the parts of the Old World inhabited by this species, the testimony of those who have 
observed it in a state of nature gives Eastern Europe in winter, and Lapland, Finmark, Northern Russia, and 
Siberia as the countries frequented by it in summer, in all of which it probably breeds. That it also frequents 
the Crimea at the same season is certain, since I have seen specimens which were obtained there at that 
period of the year. 
Dr. Bree, after remarking that the bird is found plentifully in Egyjit, Nubia, Greece, Turkey, and Barbary 
during the winter, says, “ 1 have been favoured with the following interesting account of its discovery in East 
Finmark by Alfred Newton, Esq. — “ On the 22nd of June, 1855, a few days after our arrival at Wadso, 
Mr. W. H. Simpson and I, in the course of a bird’s-nesting walk to the north-east of the town, to the distance 
perhaps of a couple of English miles, came upon a bog, the appearance of which held out greater promise to 
our ornithological appetites than we had hitherto met with in Norway. We had crossed the meadows near 
the houses, where Temminck’s Stint and the Shore-Lark were trilling out their glad notes, and were traversing 
a low ridge of barren moor, when the solicitude of a pair of Golden Plovers plainly told us that their eggs or 
young were near us 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 that 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 
