ANTHUS CERVINUS.
Red-throated Pipit.

Motacilla cervina, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-Asiat., tom. i. pe OL
Alauda Cacilii, Aud. Hist. de ’ Egypte, Ois. tab. v. fig. 6.
Anthus rufogularis, Brehm, Lehrb., vol. ii. p. 963.
— Cecil, Blyth, Cat. of Birds in Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 324.
cervinus, Keys. et Blas. Wirb. Eur., p. 172.
——— pratensis rufigularis, Schleg. Rev. Crit. des Ois. d’Eur., p. xxxvi.

 

 

I ricure this very distinct species of Pipit in the ‘Birds of Great Britain’ on the authority of one of our
most experienced and enthusiastic ornithologists, Mr. Harting—who states in his recently published
‘Handbook of British Birds’ that an example had been killed at Unst, in Shetland, on May 4, 1854 (and
recorded by him in the ‘ Field’ for August 26, 1571), and mentions that another was taken in September of
the same year near Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. These occurrences need not occasion surprise, since it
is highly probable that a bird which is frequently found breeding in many parts of Scandinavia should at one
season or another casually visit Britain. To many of our ornithologists it is unkown except by name; and
hence frequent mistakes as to its synonymy have been made. By some writers, both at home and abroad, it
has been regarded as a variety of our ordinary Pipit (4nthus pratensis); from that bird, however, it differs in
many particulars, the most conspicuous of which are its deep vinaceous colouring and the much more decided
spotting of its back, characters distinguishing it from every other species of the genus.

As IJ have no additional information to communicate respecting this Pipit beyond that given in my ‘ Birds
of Asia’ from the writings of Professor Newten, Dr. Bree, and others, J am necessitated to repeat here
much of what I have there recorded.

With regard to the synonymy, Professor Newton, in a letter to me, says, “ The right name to be used for
this species is a point on which I cannot exactly satisfy myself. Brehm’s rufogudaris appeared in his ‘ Lebr-
buch’ (vol. 11. p. 963) in 1824, while Pallas’s cervina was only published in 1831 (Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., vol. i.
p- 511), thongh it had been in type since 1811. But I suspect the Anthus Cecil 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 of the ‘ Description de ’Egypte’ to see if the bird is therein properly described.”

Professor Newton, however, in his interesting account of the discovery of the breeding bird, published in
Dr. Bree’s ‘ History of the Birds of Europe not found in the British Isles’ (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 4. pratensis, as a variety of that species, or
adopt Pastor Brehin’s name of rufogularis.

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 over-
looked ;” in fact it is as slender in form, and as delicate in the structure of its legs and hind toe as our own
Titlark, and, moreover, bas 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 Kastern Europe in winter, and Lapland, Finmark, Northern Russia, and
Siberia as the countries frequented by it in summer, inall of which it probably breeds. That it also frequents
the Crimea at the same season is certain, since I have seen specimens which were obtained there at that
period of the year.

Dr. Bree, after remarking that the bird is found plentifully in Egypt, Nubia, Greece, Tarkey, and Barbary
during the winter, says, ‘‘ I have been favoured with the following interesting account of its discovery in East
Finmark by Alfred Newton, Esq. :’—** On the 22nd of June, 1855, a few days after our arrival at Wadso,
Mr. W. H. Simpson and I, in the course of a bird’s-nesting walk to the north-east of the town, to the distance
perhaps of a couple of English miles, came upon a bog, the appearance of 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 Stint and the Shore-Lark were trilling out their glad notes, and were traversing
a low ride 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 dart out from beneath my feet, and alight again close by, ina manner that I was sure could
only be that of a sitting hen. I had but to step off the grass-grown hillock on which I was standing, to see the