588 MOTACILLID^. 



spotted with black and the sides of the body also streaked with 

 black ; centre of breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts uniform 

 yellowish buff ; under wing-coverts ashy, edged with olive ; quills 

 ashy below, hghter on the face of the inner webs. Total length 

 5-3 inches, culmen 0-55, wing 3-15, tail 2-3, tarsus 0-9. {Mus. H. 

 SeeboJim.) 



Obs. From the winter plumage above described the bird moults 

 in the following spring to the red-throated stage with a rufous eye- 

 brow ; but it seems certain that not every male bird has the chest 

 rufous as well as the throat : some are densely spotted on the breast 

 like the old females and have only the throat itself rufous ; these 

 are, as Mr. Seebohm surmises, very probably young males of the 

 previous year in their first breeding-dress. 



It seerns equally certain that some males, perhaps very old birds, 

 retain the red throat in winter and have the breast and sides of the 

 body very densely spotted and streaked with black. Mr. Seebohm 

 has such a male from Turkey, obtained on the 7th of October ; the 

 Museum has one from Asia Minor (date lost) ; and a third, from 

 the Eiver Ob, is in Mr. Seebohm's collection, and was procured by 

 Dr. Finsch as early as the 7th of September. 



The female in winter plumage does not have the rufous throat 

 seen in some males ; the throat is yellowish white like the abdomen, 

 the breast and sides of the body very thickly and broadly spotted 

 and streaked with black as in the summer plumage. During the 

 breeding-season the rufous of the throat gets more and more worn, 

 and is sometimes completely washed out and becomes yellowish 

 white. 



Nestlincj. fiecalls the feathering of the adult winter plumage, but 

 is light sandy coloured with an olive tinge ; edges to the wing- 

 coverts very strongly marked with black centres ; eyelid and eye- 

 brow yellowish buff mottled with black spots ; under surface of 

 body sandy buff, with distinct black spots on the breast and streaks 

 on the flanks. 



Hah. Breeds throughout Northern Europe and Siberia, above the 

 limits of forest-growth. Occasional in England and Western Europe 

 on migration. Winters in Egypt and North-eastern Africa, Persia, 

 and North-western India, but principally in Southern China and the 

 Burmese countries, extending at least to Borneo. Its northern range 

 to the eastward appears to be Kamtschatka and as far as Bering 

 Island ; not as yet recorded from Alaska, but has been met with in 

 winter as far south as California. 



a cJad.sk. Ust Zylma, Petcliora River, HenrySeebolim,Esq. [P.]. 



May 23. 



6 9ad.sk. Alexievka, Petchora, June Henry Seebohm, Esq. [P.]. 



17. 



c. S ad. sk. UstZylma,May (J.yl.i/.-B.). Major Feilden and J. A. 



llarvie-Brown,Esq.[P.]. 



d. 5 ad. sk. Schtschutschja, Ob River, Geogr. Soc. Bremen. 



July {Dr. Finsch). 



