434 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
the small birds not hesitating to alight upon the back of the cuckoo. As soon, 
however, as the young cuckoo has become the sole object of the charge of the 
pipits, the latter accept the situation with admirable fortitude, working early and 
late to satisfy the hungry maw of their foster-child. The meadow-pipit is very 
subject to a variation of plumage, especially when young; one of the prettiest 
varieties being of a buff canary-yellow throughout, and we have seen others 
RICHARD’S PIPIT, WATER-PIPIT, AND TAWNY PIPIT (| liat. size). 
pied with white. A small pale race is found in Madeira. The meadow-pipit 
is olive-brown above, with dark centres to the feathers, often tinged with olive 
green; the under-parts being bullish white, thickly streaked with dark brown. 
Richard’s Pipit ^ ^ ar S e species of pipit, known as Richard’s pipit (A. richardi), 
breeds in North Siberia, whence stragglers often wander to Britain 
during the autumn and winter. Mr. Seebohm states that he found this pipit 
“ exceedingly abundant in the meadows on the banks of the Yenesei near Yenesaisk. 
The country is almost a dead flat for miles, and is intersected with half dried-up 
