Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/326

312 851. Anthus spinoletta. The Water-Pipit.

Alauda spinoletta, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 288 (1766). Anthus &aiatic(l8,Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. iii. p. 745 (1807) : Scully, 8. F. iv, p. 152. Anthus blakistoni, Swink. P. Z. S. 1863, pp. 90, 273 ; id. Ibis, 1867, p. 389 ; Hume, S. F. v, p. 345 ; id. Cat. no. 605 quat. ; Brooks, 8. F. viii, p. 484 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 70 ; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 453; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 237 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 244. Anthus neglectus, Brooks, Ibis, 1876, p. 501 ; Hume, S. F. v, p. 345. Anthus spinoletta (Linn.), Hume, Cat, no. 605 ter ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 243.

Anthus spipoletta (Linn.}, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x, p. 592.

Coloration. The adult has the upper plumage ashy brown, with the feathers streaked or centred darker ; the wings brown mar- gined with pale fulvous ; tail brown, the outermost feather with the terminal half obliquely white, the penultimate tipped white ; lores and sides of the head rufous ; supercilium and the whole lower plumage uniform fulvous or vinous.

The young bird has the upper plumage, wings, and tail like the adult; the supercilium and lower plumage pale isabelline, with narrow ill-defined pale brown streaks on the fore neck and breast, and streaks of the same kind, but much larger, on the sides of the body.

Iris brown ; bill, legs, feet, and claws black (Bine/ham'). Length about 6-5; tail 2-7; wing 3*5 ; tarsus '85; bill from gape -7 ; hind claw -4.

This Pipit varies much in size and colour of plumage, and an attempt has been made to establish two species on these variable characters. After examining a very large series of these birds col- lected in all parts from Europe to China, I am quite unable to discover any grounds for separating the Chinese and Indian bird (A. blakistoni) from the European (A. spinoletta). It is note- worthy that nearly all the Pipits of this species procured in the North-west Provinces of India have the wing under 3'3 in length, whereas European birds have it 3-6 on the average. In the Pun- jab, however, the large and small birds are met with together, and birds of intermediate si/e occur everywhere. Chinese birds have the wing 3*4 The alleged differences of striation on the upper and lower plumages are apparently merely matters of age.

Distribution. A winter visitor to Sind, the Punjab, and the North- west Provinces, the whole of Kashmir and the Himalayas as far east as the Sutlej valley. This Pipit ranges into Europe on the 'one hand, and into China on the other. It appears to breed in Northern and Central Asia.

852. Anthus japonicus. The Eastern Water-Pipit.

Anthus pratensis japonicus, Temm. fy tSchley. Faun. Japon., Aves, p. 59, pi. 24 (1850).

Anthus blakistoni, Swinh., apud Butler, S. F. yii, p. 177.