PASSERES. MOT A CJLL1 DAE.
A n t h u s c a m p e s t r is (Linnaeus*).
TAWNY PIPIT.
T h e bird above represented is so common in many
countries of Europe and even in some of those which
confront our shores that it is rather a matter of wonder the
species should have remained for so long a time unrecognized
as an occasional visitor to this island—the more so
because since its occurrence here was noted several examples
have been recorded as obtained in England. To Mr. Rowley
is due the credit of making known this addition to our
casual Fauna. In ‘ The Ib is ’ for 1863 (pp. 37-39) he
stated that an example w’as shot near Shoreliam Harbour,
on the 17th August, 1858, which being mistaken for a
Richard s Pipit, the bird next to be described, passed into
the collection of Mr. Henry Collins of Aldswortli, and there
remained as such until Mr. Rowley’s attention being especially
drawn to a Pipit, shot near Rottingdean on the 24tli
* Alauda campestris, Linnffius, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 288 (1766).
September, 1862, and examined by him in the flesh, he
found that both this specimen, now in Major’s Spicer’s possession,
and that previously obtained belonged to a species
not hitherto known to have been observed in Britain. On
the 30tli September, 1864, a third English example of the
Tawny Pipit, for such the two already mentioned proved to
be, a male taken in a clap-net near Brighton, was seen by
Mr. Rowley about an hour after its capture and alive
(Zool. p. 9327). This is now in Mr. Monk’s collection.
A fourth, a male in freshly-moulted plumage, was shot 19tli
September, 1868, by Mr. Augustus Pechell on Trescoe, one
of the Scilly Isles, and was examined the same day by
Mr. Rodd (Zool. s.s. p. 1458) in whose possession it still
is. On the 6tli September, 1869, two more are said by
Mr. Wonfor (Zool. s.s. p. 1918) to have been shot at
Rottingdean, of which one was too much injured to be
preserved; and on the 20th November following a bird,
which, though some doubts have been expressed on the
subject, was determined by Mr. Gould (Zool. s.s. p. 2068)
to be of this species, was shot on the sandhills to the
south of Bridlington Quay by Mr. T. Boynton, in whose
possession it remains. On the 29tli September, 1870, as
the Editor is informed by Mr. Rowley, another Tawny Pipit,
an immature bird, was caught at Rottingdean. This is
recorded by Mr. Bond (Zool. s.s. p. 2383) and is now in
Mr. Monk’s collection, while a ninth British example was
netted near Brighton early in October, 1873 (Zool. s.s.
p. 3832) and passed into Sir John Crewe’s possession.
The Tawny Pipit is a summer-visitor to the greater part
of Europe, shewing, with a few exceptions, a preference for
dry and barren places. In Holland it breeds on the sandhills
near the sea, and it is met with in suitable localities
from thence to the south of Sweden and in the larger
islands of the Baltic, while it has occurred in Finland.
In the eastern parts of North Germany, Livonia and
Estlionia it becomes more common, but in the interior of
Russia it does not seem to go further northward than
Jaroslav, though it is very common on the steppes of the