312 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in winter quarters in January and February. Hugh Whistler (1928) 

 writes: 



From September until May the Bluethroat is a common species in India either 

 as a passage migrant or a winter visitor, but its movements have not yet been 

 properly worked out. It does not breed nearer than Ladakh. Although ex- 

 tremely common at certain times and places it escapes observation through its 

 skulking habits. It is a bird of the ground and heavy cover, preferring dampish 

 spots, such as reed-beds on the edge jheels, tamarisk thickets in river-beds, heavy 

 standing crops and similar situations. In these it feeds on the ground, only 

 occasionally ascending to the top of the bushes to look around or to sing a few 

 bars of its beautiful song. 



Ordinarily it is only seen when one walks through cover, as it dashes up at one's 

 feet and flies a few yards before diving headlong again into obscurity where it 

 runs rapidly along the ground in short bursts; at the end of each course of running 

 the tail is elevated and slightly expanded; the dark brown tail with its bright 

 chestnut base is very conspicuous in flight and readily leads to identification. 

 The alarm note and ordinary call is a harsh tack, but on its breeding grounds this 

 Bluethroat is a fine songster and mimic. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — The species Cyanosylvia suecica breeds in most of 

 Europe, except Portugal, Italy, and the British Isles (though except 

 in the north it is represented by the white-spotted form, C. s. cyanecula) 

 and across Asia eastward to east Siberia and Manchuria, south to 

 Armenia, Iran, Ladakh, and southern Mongolia. A number of races 

 are recognized. The range of C. s. robusta, the form to which the 

 Alaskan breeding birds in all probability belong, is given by Hartert 

 and Steinbacher (1938) as covering the larger part of Siberia from the 

 Taimyr and the lower Tunguska to the Tchuktschi Peninsula. 



Winter range. — The winter range of the species comprises North 

 Africa, Iraq, Iran, India, and southeastern Asia. Hartert (1910) gives 

 that of C. s. robusta as Burma, Assam, Farther India, and China. 



Spring migration. — The bluethroat is a somewhat late migrant, the 

 European birds passing through Britain and Helgoland for the most 

 part in May and reaching their breeding grounds late in May or 

 even in June. In Chihli, northeast China, C. s. robusta also occurs 

 on passage in May (La Touche). Thayer and Bangs (1914) record 

 the first arrival of this race on its breeding grounds at Nijni Kolymsk 

 on May 31. In Alaska, Nelson (1887) records a party at St. Michael 

 on June 5. 



Fall migration. — The passage of European bluethroats in Britain 

 takes place from the end of August to the second week of October, 

 but mainly in the latter half of September. The passage of C. s. 

 robusta in northeast China also takes place in September and October 

 (La Touche). 



