. A history of British birds . , and the fact must he recordedthat examples from most parts of Scandinavia, and probablyfrom the shores of the J>altic generally, present a rufous orvinous colouring on the breast, inducing some ornithologiststo regard them as forming a distinct species to which thename of Anthus rupestris, conferred in 1817 by Prof. Nilssoni < in. Svec. i. p. 245), should perhaps he applied. These ruddybirds, as might he expected, occasionally visit, England andhave most likely given rise to the confusion existing in vears ROCK-PIPIT. 589 gone-by as to a so-called Bed Lar
. A history of British birds . , and the fact must he recordedthat examples from most parts of Scandinavia, and probablyfrom the shores of the J>altic generally, present a rufous orvinous colouring on the breast, inducing some ornithologiststo regard them as forming a distinct species to which thename of Anthus rupestris, conferred in 1817 by Prof. Nilssoni < in. Svec. i. p. 245), should perhaps he applied. These ruddybirds, as might he expected, occasionally visit, England andhave most likely given rise to the confusion existing in vears ROCK-PIPIT. 589 gone-by as to a so-called Bed Lark —the Alauda rubra ofolder writers—said to occur in this country, while severalBritish authors, even the accurate Macgillivray among thenumber, have confounded them with the North-AmericanPipit, Anthtcs ludovicianus—a species not as yet proved tohave been observed in Britain. More recently other Englishornithologists have seen in them examples of the EuropeanA. spipoletta, just described. From either of the species last. mentioned A. rupestris, as here figured, can be readily distin-guished by having the patches at the end of its outer tail-feathers not white but of a pale greyish-brown, just as in ourown Eock-Pipit, which indeed it otherwise so nearly resem-bles that the warmer colouring of the lower parts is the soleindication of difference that can be relied upon, and thisvariation of tint seems to the Editor insufficient to establishany distinction worthy of being accounted specific. Examples of this Scandinavian form seem to have beenmet with in various parts of the country:—by Edwards,many years ago, near London; by Macgillivray, in 1824, 590 ;. near Edinburgh* (Man. Br. Orn. i. p. 169); by Mr. Steven-son, more than once, in Norfolk; by Mr Rowley, severaltimes, at Brighton; and by Mr. Marcus Rickards twice onthe Severn (Zool. p. L222); while Mr Hancock has oneshot from the nest at Chepstow in Monmouthshire, 18thApril, 1854 (Ibis, 1865, p. 237). S
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1885
