WAGTAILS AND PIPITS. FAMILY MOTACILLIDÆ
Reading edition
AMERICAN PIPIT Anthus rubescens. Case 4, Fig. 62; Case 5, Fig. 17
Outer tail-feathers white, bill slender, back grayish. L. 6½.
Range. Nests from Newfoundland to Greenland; winters from Maryland to Florida and Mexico.
Washington, W.V., sometimes abundant, Oct. 2-May 12. Ossining, common T.V., Mch. 26-(?); Sept. 24-Nov. 16. Cambridge, T.V., abundant Sept. 20-Nov. 10; rare Apl. 10-May 20. N. Ohio, common T.V., Apl. 6-May 20; Oct. 19. Glen Ellyn, not common T.V., Apl. 15-; Sept. 30-Oct. 18. SE. Minn., common T.V., May 4-; Oct.
At first glance a Pipit might be mistaken for a Sparrow—let us say, a Vesper Sparrow; but note that it walks, instead of hops, that it constantly wags or 'tips' its tail, that it has a slender, not stout bill. Meadows, pastures, plowed fields, golf-courses, are frequented by Pipits, usually in flocks of a dozen or more. When flushed, with a faint dee-dee, they bound lightly into the air but usually soon return to earth.
Sprague's Pipit (Anthus spraguei), a slightly smaller species, nests in Montana, Dakota, and northward, and is sometimes found in small numbers on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia in winter.