RICHARD'S PIPIT.
Anfhus Ricardi, VIELLOT. FLEMING. BEWICK. SELHY.
" longipes, HOLLAMDRE.
rupestris, MKNKTZ.
Corydalla Richardii, VIGORS.
" sinensis, BuONAFARTK.
Anfhus—Some small bird. Ricardi—Of Richard.
THIS is a rare bird, a veritable 'rara avis,' even in Europe, which
is the only quarter of the globe in which it has hitherto been discovered;
its native home is probably, however, elsewhere. A few
specimens have been met with in Italy, Greece, France, Germany,
Spain, the island of Crete, and Austria, in which last-named country
it is the most frequent.
In our own country one was taken alive in a net near London, in the
month of October, 1812; two others occurred, also near London, in the
spring of 1836; and another has been procured since; a fifth was taken
near Oxford. One was shot near Howick, in Northumberland, on the
13th. of February, 1832, by Mr. W. Proctor, curator of the museum
of the University of Durham; and one near Newcastle, a female, on
the 9th. of October, 18-45, as recorded by Mr. Thomas John Hold, in
the 'Zoologist,' pages 1210-11; one in Shropshire, in the autumn of
1866. Another, as recorded by William Packard Fisher, Esq., of Yarmouth,
was killed near there on the 22nd. of November, 1841;
another in the following April, 1842; and another on the 23rd. of
April, 1843, on the Denes, between that towrn and Caistor, by the
same person who had previously killed one, and who remarked its
peculiar appearance. Two were shot near Penzance, in Cornwall, two
near Marazion, in that countv, and others besides.
In addition to these, John Gatcoxnbe, Esq., of Wyndham Place,
Plymouth., who has most obligingly furnished me with a highly-finished
coloured drawing of the bird, from which the plate is taken, has