SOT0 L1ETTA .
XGould & n.C JiichUr, dd. rf. hth Waller. Imp.
V i a o iK I '» p i
Alauda spmoletta, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. m'-
Anthus spmoletta, Bonap. Syn. Birds of Am., p.
— aquaticus. Becbst. Naturg. Deutschl. torn. & »
montanus, Kocb, Baier. Zool., tom. i. ». ITS t
The Pipits witli vinous-coloured breasts which have fW mrm? venr; mw* been i*j ^ ¡<
a sad puzzle to our ornithologists—some being of opinion a - of i&kthut iriwurrst. .**•*! aifcer*.
that they pertain to a distinct species; more than one d ghetto ail qtmw.it1 wittr r,M Anthus faisr>nflW'1T
of America, while others believe them to be example* >>■ jW v. « f Lmmw«» ( .4. •=>< T».-».-
minck). In this latter opinion I coincide; hence-it Weowe» ■•.v-x-.-.i tfcas 1 »ko*dwi %»»re o f the 5;
and all the information I can respecting it. On the 2S*h of I80U, Mr, fife*»»* .4, fcfaeihew#, <tf
Merton College, Oxford, wrote to me as follows :— Arc ih>*. $m> «{wcttes o f Bock -Pipit Vo this ruaotrv,
of which one has hitherto remained unnoticed? or is the eootuu>mal Koch-Pi pit (.4. aquettuui. lYmni >
merely a permanent variety of the ordinarily olive-ccb.f^ml Pipit {A. obscurus) met with with us ? 1
possess a Rock-Pipit shot at Torquay, which appears to me to be »lightly larger than the bird commonly
seen, and of a rich vinous tint on the breast. 1 thought ai first this might he a very old bird, in an advanced
state of plumage, and was careful therefore to shoot, last vowing, during the hreeding-season (when the birds
would certainly be in their finest state), a number of specimen* fr>r cmnparisoM ; but none of those I then
shot bore any resemblance in the tint of their plumage to my Torquay specimen. The ordinary Kock-
Piptr, so abundant on our coasts, is kuown at once by its sombre tdric-green etdouring, and by the well-
defined gorget of spots on its throat. In the Torquay specimen there b- hardly any (nice of this gorget-
marking.”
In December 1864, the Messrs. Pratt, of Brighton, sent for my inspection two vinoas-breasted
birds, oue of which, killed near Worthing, is represented in the front figure of &»y Plate. Some time
after this, Mr. Edward T. Booth wrote to Mr. Bond:—“ Mr. Swaysbmd ha» ten of these birds
this season ; of that number he obtained eight one morning, and two «>>?■• in three or four mornings
afterwards, between the 14th and 20th of March 1867, at a mmsH |osu inside the tea-beach at
Portslade, near Brighton. Some of them were seen crossing the sc«, ami pttB&tog •«* Use grass near the
pool. They were by no means shy, but would not permit a nearer approm fc tksm w thirty or forty yards.
A great number of other Pipits were crossing at the same time, ad a# egpnifed to be the Meadow-
Pipit.” Two of these specimens having been sent to Mr. Bond, Uwt allowed me to inspect
them, and I found they were precisely similar to the Anthus spi#»kttu *4 the Continent:>one had
the breast strongly suffused with vinous; iu the other this tint wa# wet m extensive, the flanks being
spotted with brown, from which we may infer that it was a younger bird, • <*** beginning to assume its
summer plumage; for it is believed that the viuous tint is a characteristic o* ?*<•. / spinoletta at that season ;
and it seems to me that these birds must be distinct from A. obscurus, hecauve. we do know that the examples
of the latter species so generally distributed over this country retain the »potted plumage throughout the
year. I suspect that most of the Pipits of the northern hemisphere differ in the same manner as the
Wagtails, and that, if we admit Motacilla J farrelli to be distinct from .*/. alba, and Bndytes Rayi from
B . flam, we must also regard the present bird, A . spmoletta, as distinct from A. obscurus.
According to Bailly, the A. spmoletta passes much of its time awl breeds on the mountains—a habit so
different from that of A . obscurus that his account, extracted from his ‘ Ornithologie de la Savoie/ tends
greatly to prove that it is a distinct species.
“ This bird is common, at all seasons of the year, both in Switzerland and'in Savoy. During winter it fre-
quents the wet meadows, the marshes, and the unfrozen springs of the lower portions of both those
countries, and about the end of March or beginning of April ascends the mountains and resorts to the most
sterile plateaux, fields, heaths, and stony places in the neighbourhood of water, often above the forest-region.
It generally proceeds in small companies, and ascends u short distance every day as the snows disappear
from its favourite breeding-places. It pairs at the beginning of May; and the united couples immediately
begin the construction of their nests. These are to be found on all parts of the mountains, even near to the
line of perpetual congelation—sometimes in declivities, at others on the plateaux, but nearly always in
the most arid and desert places. They are placed on the ground, under stones, sometimes in clefts in the
rock, but oftener in the grass, beneath the bilberry, Rhododendron ferntgweum, whortleberry, or some creep