ANTHUS CERVINUS.
Red-throated Pipit.
Motacilla cervina, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. i. p. 511.
Alauda Cacitii, Aud. Ilist. de l’Egypte, Ois. tab. v. fig. 6.
Antlius rufogularis, Brehm, Lehrb., vol. ii. p. 963.—Id. Yog. Deutscbl., p. 320.
Cecili, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 324.
cervinus, Keys, et Blas. Wirb. Eur., p. 172.—Midd. Sib. Reise, vol. ii. p. 165, pi. xiv. figs. 1-3.—Bonap.
Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 248, Anthus, sp. 4.—Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 14.—Swinh. Proc. of Zool.
Soc., 1863, pp. 273, 334.—Id. Ibis, 1863, p. 311.—Sperl. Ibis, 1864, p. 279.—Trist. Proc. of Zool. Soc.,
1864, p. 435.—Id. Ibis, 1866, p. 290.—Bree, Hist, of Eur. Birds not obs. in Brit. Isl., vol. ii. p. 155,
and fig.
pratensis rufigularis, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. xxxvi.
C o n s id e ra b l e confusion exists respecting the synonymy, the correct specific appellation, and the specific
value o f this pretty Pipit, some ornithologists believing it to be merely a variety of Anthus pratensis.
With regard to the synonymy, Professor Newton, in a letter to me, says, “ T he right name to be used for
this species is a point on which I cannot exactly satisfy myself. Brehm’s rufogularis appeared in his ‘ Lehr-
buch’ (vol. ii. p. 963) in 1824, while Pallas’s cervina was only published in 1831 (Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., vol. i.
p. 511), though it had been in typefsi.nce 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 o f the ‘ Description de I’Egypte ’ to see if the bird is therein properly described.”
Professor Newton, however, in his interesting account o f his discovery of the breeding bird, published in
Dr. Bree’s ‘ History o f the Birds o f Europe not found in the British Isle s ’ (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 o f that species, or
adopt Pastor Brehm’s name of rufogularis. With regard to its specific distinctness, I have no more doubt
than, from the paragraph hereafter quoted, will be found to exist in the mind of Professor Newton.
I cannot 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 fact being overlooked
; ” in point of fact, it is as slender in form, and as delicate in the structure o f 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 the specimens from which my figures were taken were
obtained there a t that period of the -year. Dr. Jerdon considers the Indian bird of this form, to which
Mr. Hodgson assigned the specific term rosaceus, to be identical with A . cervinus; but I have never seen an
individual of the latter from any part of India, and have no doubt that Mr. Hodgson was correct in characterizing
the Indian bird as distinct.
The recorded information respecting the history o f this species is but scanty, little having been written on the
subject except by Professor Newton; I shall therefore take the liberty o f extracting the greater part o f his notes
from Dr. B ree’s work above quoted.
Dr. Bree, after remarking that the bird is found plentifully in Egypt, Nubia, Greeee, Turkey, and Barbary
during the winter, says, “ I have been favoured with the following interesting account o f its discovery in East
Finmark by Alfred Newton, Esq.” :— “ On the 22nd of June, 1855, a few days after our arrival a t Wadso,
Mr. W. H. Simpson and I, in the course o f a bird’s-nesting walk to the north-east o f the town, to the distance
perhaps of a couple of English miles, came upon a bog, the appearance o f 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 S tint 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 d art out from beneath my feet, and alight again close by, in a manner that I was sure could
only be that o f a sitting hen. I had but to step off the grass-grown hillock on which I was standing, to see the
nest ensconced in a little nook, half covered by herbage. But the appearance of the eggs took me by surprise;
for they were unlike any I knew—of a brown colour, indeed, but of a brown so warm that I could only liken it
to that of old mahogany-wood, and compare them, in my mind, with those of the Lapland Bunting. However,
there was the bird, running about so close to me that, with my glass, I could see her almost as well as if she had