PIPIT. 
NeMling . Upper-parts bl:'.ckish-brown, all the feathers margined and bordered with 
rich buff; wings brownish-black, laarrowly bordered with white towards their 
extremity; secondaries brownish-black, widely mar^ned with rich buff; outer 
‘pair of tail-feathers pure wliite ; penultimate pair white with a broad mesial streak 
of black ; remainder of tail blacldsh-brown bordered on the outer web with rich 
buff; chin and tlnoat yellowisli-wlute, a well marked line of blackish feathers down 
the sides of the tliroat ; chest and sides of the body pale buff, each feather with a 
central drop of blackish-brown ; nuddle of the breiist, belly and under tail-coverts 
wlutisli. Eyes grey, feet yellow, bill creamy-brown. Collected at Aubm-n, Victoria, 
on the 10th of November, 1010. 
Nestling. Upper-parts, including the cheeks, reddish-buff, all the feathers centred with 
brownish-black ; secondaries blackish-brown, narrowly margined all round with 
white ; secondaries slightly darker and widely margined witJi roddish-bulT ; outer 
pair of tail-feathers pure white ; penultimate pair with the shaft blackish-brown 
and a narrow fringe on the inner web of black; remainder of tail blackish-brown, 
borderotl on the outer web with reddish-brown; a broad eyebrow of reddish-buff 
feathers ; cliin and throat whitish ; a line of blackish feathers down the sides of 
the throat; remainder of the under-parts light reddish-buff; feathers of the chest, 
sides of the body and flanks streaked and spotted with blackish-brown. Eyes 
hazel, feet and legs dull yellow, bill bright purple with yellow edges. Collected 
on L)irk Hartog Island, West Australia, on the 7th of October, 1916. 
Eggs . Three to four eggs foim the clutch, rarely five. A clutch of tliree eggs taken at 
Belltrees, Upper Hunter River, New South Wales, on the 29th of September, 1909, 
is of a greyish-white ground-colour, spotted and very minutely marked all over with 
pale umber and dull slaty-grey, the markings becoming more concentrated at the 
larger end. Ovals in shape. Smface of shell fine and smooth, and rather glossy. 
23 by 15-16 mm. 
Nest. A rather deep cup-shaped structure, composed of dead, soft, and well-bleached 
grass, and built in a hollow or hole in the ground; the rim of the nest is level with 
the ground siu'rounding it. It is gonerallj’ placed under^ the side of a leaning 
clump of grass, or sometimes a small bush or stone, etc. Dimensions of nest inside 
are 2J inches across by 4 to nearly if inches in depth. 
Breeding-months. August to January. 
'rnouGH this species was represented among the Watling drawings, Latham 
did not give it a scientific name. According to Sharpe’s account. Nos. 192 
and 193 represent the “ New Holland Lark ” of Latham’s MS. Of the former 
Watling wrote “ The New South Wales Lark” and to the latter added “ Only 
seen in the winter.” ^ • t>- j 
Then Vigors and Horsfield, dealing with the collection of Australian Birds 
in the Linnean Society’s Museum, named Anthus australis, observing “ Mr. 
Caley says that ‘ this Lark is very common. It may frequently be seen both 
in the trees and on the ground. Having met with it in the height of summer 
and the depth of winter, and indeed I may almost say at all tunes, I consider 
it not migratory.’ A specimen in the coUection presented by Mr. Brown was 
obtained on the South Coast.” They also added as a distinct species Anthm 
pallescens. 
133 
