Adult.—Above sandy gray, somewhat similar to A. gustavi, but lighter and grayer without the whitish streaks on the sides of the back; head streaked with dark brown; feathers of back and rump with broad mesial streaks of blackish brown; long and broad superciliary stripe, lores, ear-coverts, suborbital region, chin, throat, and chest vinaceous-cinnamon or vinaceous-buff; remainder of under parts light buff; sides, flanks, and, in many specimens, the breast, streaked with blackish brown; wings and tail dark brown, most of the feathers with white or sandy buff edges; greater and median coverts with whitish tips forming two bars; two outer pairs of rectrices with wide white tips.
A male from Calayan Island measures: Length, 145; wing, 85; tail, 61; culmen from base, 14; tarsus, 22; hind toe with claw, 20. A female from the same locality, wing, 79; tail, 56; culmen from base, 13; tarsus, 21; hind toe with claw, 20.
Immature birds have less vinaceous color about the head and more black stripes on the chest; still younger birds have lores, supercilium, malar region, chin, and throat buff with no trace of vinaceous, and the sides of throat are thickly spotted with blackish brown. This last plumage resembles some plumages of A. gustavi, but the latter species seems always to have a larger bill and distinct white or pale buff lines on the sides of the back.
The red-throated pipit in adult summer plumage is a very handsome species. It is found in the Philippine Islands in winter only and then but rarely.
Family ALAUDIDÆ.
Bill stout, first primary very short; tertials shorter, or but little longer, than secondaries; tail moderate in length; two outer rectrices partly white as in Anthus; tarsus scutellate both in front and behind; claw of hind toe longer than the toe itself; upper plumage brown and the breast streaked.
Genera.
- a1. Bill more slender; first primary minute, shorter than primary-coverts; claw of hind toe more than one-half the length of tarsus. Alauda (p. [674])
- a2. Bill much stouter; first primary longer than the primary-coverts; claw of hind toe not more than one-half the length of tarsus. Mirafra (p. [675])