SPOTTED TREE PIPIT.
- Anthus maculatus (not Motacilla maculata Gmelin) Hodgson, in Gray’s Zool. Miscl. (1844), 83; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 547; Hume, Nests & Eggs Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 209; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 237 (habits); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 101.
- Anthus hodgsoni Richmond, Publ. Carnegie Inst. Wash. (1907), no. 54, 493.
Apo (Celestino); Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Everett, Whitehead, McGregor, Bartsch); Mindanao (Goodfellow); Palawan (Everett). Eastern Siberia, China, Japan, Indo-Burmese countries, Liu Kiu Islands, and the Indian Peninsula.
Adult in fresh plumage.—Above dark olive-green; top of head streaked with blackish brown; feathers of back with blackish shaft-lines, much less conspicuous than in A. gustavi or A. rufulus; lower back, rump, and tail-coverts uniform olive-green; side of forehead and supercilium buff, forming a line which becomes white over ear-coverts; lores blackish; subocular region and ear-coverts buff, mottled with dark brown; chin, throat, and chest pale buff, separated from the buff jaw by a blackish malar line; lower breast, abdomen, and crissum white; flanks and thighs dark buff; breast, sides, and flanks marked with large black spots, which are triangular on chest, and elongate on sides and flanks; wing-feathers blackish, edged with olive; tips of median and greater coverts buffy, forming two bars; rectrices blackish, two or three outer pairs tipped with white. In summer the plumage has become much worn and the dark markings are more conspicuous. A male taken in Luzon in November measures: Length, 152; wing, 84; tail, 60; culmen from base, 14; tarsus, 21; hind toe with claw, 15. A female in worn plumage from Benguet Province, Luzon, measures: Wing, 80; tail, 57; culmen from base, 14; tarsus, 21; hind toe with claw, 17. The diagnostic characters of this species are the olivaceous upper parts, the large triangular spots on the breast, and the short claw of the hind toe.
685. ANTHUS RICHARDI Vieillot.
RICHARD’S PIPIT.
- Anthus richardi Vieillot, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. (1818), 26, 491; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 564 (figure of foot); Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 307, fig. 85 (foot); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 102.
Balabac (Everett). Central and eastern Asia and India; in winter to southern China, Burmese countries, Ceylon, western and southern Europe; occasional in the British Islands.
Adult.—“Upper plumage fulvous-brown, the feathers centered with blackish, the rump more uniform; wings dark brown margined with fulvous; tail dark brown with pale margins, the outermost feather almost entirely white, the penultimate with an oblique portion of the inner web, about an inch and a half [38 mm.] in length, also white; supercilium and lower plumage pale fulvous, the sides of the throat and fore neck and the whole breast streaked with dark brown; sides of the body darker fulvous, with a few indistinct streaks. Bill brown, yellowish at base of lower mandible; mouth yellow; iris brown, legs flesh-color, the claws darker. Length, about 190; tail, 86; wing, 94; tarsus, 30; bill from gape, 22; hind claw, about 20.” (Oates.)