The Red-Throated Pipit — Anthus Cervinus (Pallas)
Less than half-a-dozen individuals of this species, which breed in the far north of Europe and Asia, and winter in tropical Africa, have visited us, and with one exception they have all been taken on the shores of Kent or Sussex.
It closely resembles the Meadow Pipit, but in the breeding season the sides of the neck and breast in both sexes are vinous chestnut. All our examples, however, have been immature birds, which are extremely difficult to distinguish from our common species.
The feathers of the rump form, however, the most distinctive character in this species; they have dark centres like those of the mantle, but in the Meadow Pipit, as we pointed out above, these feathers are of a uniform olive brown. Length 5·8 in.; wing 3·5 in.