361 
Mr. P. L. Sclater on the Neotropical Pipits. 
Anthus peruvianus, Nicholson^ P. Z. S. 1878_, p. 291 (?) 
This little Anthus is at once recognizable by its small size, 
the wbjg barely exceeding 2^ inches in any specimens, and 
being generally less. It is with some hesitation that I con¬ 
tinue to use for it the name ritfus/^ bestowed by Gmelin 
upon the Petite alouette de Buenos Ayres/^ otherwise Le 
variole of Buffon. If the bird so designated was really ob¬ 
tained by Commerson upon the banks of the Bio de la Plata, 
as Buffon tells us, it is much more likely to have been A. cor- 
rendera ; and Burmeister has actually applied Gmelin^s term 
to the latter species. But errors in locality are not very 
uncommon in Buffon^s works, as every one knows ; and, taking 
this view, I will continue to call this little species by the 
name applied to it by Messrs. Lawrence and Baird. This is 
the more convenient because I have just shown that the 
name chii, often used for it, most probably belongs else¬ 
where. 
Anthus rufus, then, as we will call it, has an extensive 
range. It is not uncommon in Bio collections, and is, I 
believe, the only species found in that part of Brazil. Natterer 
obtained ten examples of it near Bio, on the puddles in the 
roads and in the swamps (nOi 168 of his collection). In 
Salvin and Godman’s collection is a skin forwarded from 
Bahia by Dr. Wucherer. Proceeding northwards, I have a 
skin of this species obtained by Mr. Wallace on the island of 
Mexiana, at the mouth of the Amazons, where, Mr. Wallace 
tells us, it is tolerably plentiful on the open dry plains."’^ 
From Guiana I have seen but a single immature specimen, in 
the collection of the Smithsonian Institution (no. 70,695). 
A single skin in my own collection is labelled Trinidad, but 
was perhaps obtained in the savannahs of the opposite coast 
of Venezuela, whence many Trinidad skins are certainly 
derived. I have also before me two specimens from Panama 
(one of which is the type of A. parvus of Lawrence) and one 
from Veragua; and I fully share Mr. Salvin'’s views (given 
P. Z. S. 1867, p. 135) as to the difficulty of separating these 
from Brazilian examples. 
Going now to. the west coast of South America, I have 
