Motacilla cervina Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. (1811), 1,
511. Anthus cervinus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10,
585; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 238 (habits); McGregor and Worcester,
Hand-List (1906), 102.
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Whitehead); Mindanao (Steere Exp.);
Palawan (Everett, Celestino); Alaska, Kurile Islands, Asia, Europe,
England; in winter to China and Indo-Burmese countries, Persia
and northwestern India, Formosa, Hainan, and northern Africa,
accidental in Lower California.
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)
Genus ALAUDA Linnæus, 1758.
Bill similar to that of Anthus, but stouter and blunter; nostrils
protected by short feathers and several hairs; rictal bristles few
and short; first primary shorter than primary-coverts; second primary
nearly as long as third, which is equal to fourth; tertials slightly
longer than secondaries; claw of hallux slender, nearly straight,
and equal to more than two-thirds the length of tarsus.