Gould recorded that this graceful pipit with long legs and a very long hindclaw was seldom seen in England. Vigors exhibited a live example from north London at the Linnean Society in 1824, and two found near London lived for a short time at the Zoological Society Gardens in 1836. In October 1866 Gould saw a Richard's Pipit in a garden at Highgate where it lived for three days. A drawing was made of this pipit in winter plumage which is the darker coloured bird in the illustration.

The plant depicted is the Fly Orchid Ophrys muscifera.

DISTRIBUTION: Often regarded as a separate species Anthus richardi though may be a subspecies of the widely spread Anthus novaeseelandiae. Breeds from Siberia to Mongolia and northeast China, Taiwan and Korea. Winters in south Asia, rarely to Europe and north Africa. Previous to the mid 1960s a rare vagrant to Britain but since then regularly seen, mostly in the autumn