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and which he identifies clearly with the Ameri

can species.

Mr. Turnbull, in his " Birds of East Lothian," states (p. 40) that three Pennsylvanian Pipits were shot at Dunbar in East Lothian by Mr. Robert Gray, of Glasgow.

Mr. Bond has a Pipit, identified as belonging to this species, which was obtained at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, in September, 1865; while the most recent instance of the occurrence of this Pipit in England will be found in the "Zoologist" for 1870. But anyone who reads. the correspondence relating to this instance ("Zool." tom. cit. pp. 2021, 2067, and 2100) will see how difficult it is to identify a species when the specimen is not in fully adult plumage.

When it is remembered that Anthus ludovicianus, as stated by Professor Reinhardt (“ Ibis,” 1861, p. 3), breeds in Greenland, and, according to Professor Blasius, is found in Heligoland ("Naumannia,” 1858), it is certainly not improbable that it should occasionally be found in the British Islands. At the same time it is very

desirable that some more convincing evidence than that which already exists of its occurrence here should be placed upon record.

THE RED-THROATED PIPIT.

(Anthus cervinus.)

HE present bird has, as yet, been scarcely

THE

admitted into the British list. I have seen a specimen in the collection of Mr. Bond, which was killed at Unst, Shetland, on the 4th May, 1854, and about the same year, but in September, another in the same collection was shot at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight.

In the adult plumage the species is easily recognized by the ruddy brown colouring of the upper portions of the plumage, and by the rufous patch upon the throat.

In size it is equal to the Meadow Pipit, and by some naturalists it has been considered a

permanent race or variety of that species; but

one.

the observations of Prof. Newton on this point certainly tend to show that the species is a valid It was met with by him in June, 1855, when in company with Messrs. Wolley and Simpson, in a restricted locality in East Finmark, between Wadsö and Nyborg, and several well-identified nests were procured. A specimen procured in Heligoland is in Herr Gätke's collection.

It is not uncommon as a winter visitant in Turkey, and Mr. Wright has shot many specimens in Malta, where he says it arrives in small flocks in spring and autumn. In Egypt and Nubia this bird quite takes the place of A. pratensis, and is sometimes very common there. It probably winters also in Palestine, although Canon Tristram, during his sojourn there at that season, only met with a single specimen on the coast of the plain of Sharon. It has been found in China, Japan, Formosa, and Hainan, by Mr. Swinhoe, who suggests that this bird

1 See Bree's "Birds of Europe," vol. ii. p. 155.

1

in its winter plumage is the Anthus japonicus of Temminck and Schlegel. Mr. Blyth thinks that it should probably be erased from the Indian list, as the ordinary Himalayan species, A. rosaceus of Hodgson, has been confounded with it. Upon this point, however, much difference of opinion prevails. Dr. Jerdon, in his “Birds of India," gives rosaceus as a synonym of cervinus, and Mr. Hume is puzzled to distinguish rosaceus from arboreus. He says ("Ibis," 1870, p. 288): "Typical examples of both species seem unmistakably distinct, but intermediate forms of the most puzzling character occur, of such a nature that it really seems to me impossible to decide to which species they ought to be referred."

Professor Newton considers that the Redthroated Pipit is as yet scarcely entitled to a place in the list of British Birds; nevertheless it is a bird, as he says, whose migratory habits and wide north-eastern range make it make it very likely to occur in this country, and probably its recognition as an occasional visitor to the British Islands is only a matter of time and observation.

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one, having representatives in all parts of the globe; but in the British Islands two species only can with propriety be included in the list of annual summer migrants. It is true that at least one other species has been met with in this country, to which allusion will be made presently; but it cannot be regarded in any other light than that of a rare and accidental visitant.

The Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola),

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