MEMOIR. vii 



In 1877 Seebohm undertook his celebrated journey to the Yenisei 

 Valley in Siberia, starting with Captain Wiggins, who had left his 

 ship in winter quarters within the entrance of the Koorayika River, 

 a tributary of the Yenisei. As Seebohm did not meet Captain 

 Wiggins till the 24th of February, and the two travellers left 

 London on the 1st of March, it will be readily admitted that he 

 was not a man to take long to make up his mind. Including a 

 few days spent in St. Petersburg, they were at Nishni Novgorod 

 on the morning of the 10th, a distance of about 2,400 English 

 miles. " At Nishni we bought a sledge," he writes, "and travelled 

 over the snow 3,240 English miles, employing for this purpose 

 about a thousand horses, sixteen dogs, and forty reindeer." The 

 travellers finally reached the "Thames" on the Koorayika, in the 

 afternoon of the 23rd of April . Of his further adventures, including 

 the wreck of the "Thames," and his ornithological discoveries, an 

 interesting account is given in the "Ibis" for 1877-78, and in his 

 work, "Siberia in Asia." 



Notwithstanding the important additions to ornithological 

 knowledge which his expedition had achieved, Seebohm took a 

 very modest view of its results. In his paper in the " Ibis " for 1878 

 (p. 322), he says: "The following notes on the birds of Siberia 

 are of course extremely fragmentary. It is very seldom that the 

 first expedition to a strange land is successful. The pioneer can 

 do little more than discover the localities where future researches 

 may be successively made. My great mistake was that I wintered 

 too far north," &c. The results of Seebohm's expedition were, 

 nevertheless, of the first importance. Podoces henderson i in Siberia ; 

 Picoidcs crissoleucus probably fully adult P. tridactyla ; Sitta 

 ccesia and S. europea compared ; Cuculus himalayanus in Siberia ; 

 Corvus sharpii and C. corone interbreeding; Linota linaria and L. 

 exilipes connected by intermediate forms ; the nest of Emberiza 

 pusilla; specimens of E.polaris, E. aureola, E. Icucocepliala and 

 E. rustica; the nests of Antilles gustavi and A. cervinus; observa- 

 tions on the Pied Wagtails and Titmice ; the nests of Turdus 

 dubius and T. obscurus, and the hitherto unknown young plumage 

 of the latter bird; the capture of Nemura cyanura, Calliope camt- 

 cJiatkensis, Sylvia ajfinis, the nests of Phylloscopus borealis, P. 

 tristis and P. superciliosus ; specimens of P.fiiscatus Mi&Locustella 

 certhiola ; the nests of Accentor montanellus, Chclidon lagopus, 



