356 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the Neotropical Pipits, 
which exhibit the grey bar across the wing. Of these 
four females, one, now preserved in the Norwich Museum, 
was obtained in Natal by Mr. Ayres, who marked it as a 
female; a second, also ticketed as a female, died at Knowsley, 
and is now in the Derby Museum at Liverpool; and the two 
others, both marked as females by the collectors, and pre¬ 
served in the British Museum, were obtained, the one by Mr. 
Petherick in Kordofan, the other by Mr. Blanfbrd at Bedjak 
in Abyssinia. This last specimen, I may add, has, by a clerical 
error, been eutered in the list of specimens, at p. 301 of Mr. 
Sharpens volume, as a male. 
In conclusion, it may be useful to note that, in both edi¬ 
tions of Mr. Layard^s ^ Birds of South Africa,^ an error has 
by some accident crept into the account there given of the 
adult plumage of H. ecaudatus, which is described as having 
the lesser wing-coverts rufous.They are always, so far as 
I have observed, a of lustrous stone-coloured brown, darker 
in some individuals than in others, but never in any degree 
rufous. 
[To be continued.] 
XXV.— Preliminary Remarks on the Neotropical Pipits, 
By P. L. Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 
(Plate X.) 
If the Pipits of the Palsearctic Region, and even those of 
Europe, are not yet fairly understood, as would seem evident 
by what has been lately written on them by Mr. Seebohm, 
Mr. Dresser, and other ornithologists, how much less likely 
is it that we should be well acquainted with those of South 
America ? The latter are indeed in a sad state of confusion ; 
and though I have been collecting American Pipits for many 
years, and endeavouring to get together a good series of spe¬ 
cimens from authentic localities, it is only now that I feel in 
a position to improve matters a little by putting forward the 
conclusions I have come to in the shape of a preliminary re¬ 
vision of such of the species as are found within the limits 
of South and Central America. 
