The Tawny Pipit is a regular summer visitor to the sand-dunes and arid wastes of Europe, breeding in some numbers no farther from our shores than the north of France and Holland. It winters in Africa. To England it has only been a scarce straggler, single examples having been obtained in autumn on our southern and eastern shores from the Scilly Islands as far north as Yorkshire. During the last year or two there is evidence that it may have bred in Sussex, adult pairs of birds having remained about the same spot during part of the summer till they were shot. The general colour is pale sandy brown with dull darker centres to the feathers. Two outer pairs of tail feathers white with brown margins to their inner webs, rest of the tail brown. Under parts warm buff, slightly striated with brown on the breast and paler on the belly. Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·6 in. |