Russia north of the Caucasus. 295 



phical ranges present at least two races. The former has 

 during its whole life a brown throat ; the throat of the latter 

 is always white, only streaked with shaft-stripes of brown. 

 The former breeds throughout the region of" island woods^^*; 

 the latter is a bird of the steppes, where woods are very rare. 

 But this difference of the breeding-ranges of the two birds 

 exists only in Russia, and in that country I do not know that 

 specimens of intermediate character between C gallicus and 

 C orientalis occur ; whereas near the Mediterranean the two 

 races breed together, and specimens of intermediate character 

 are very common. I think they are produced by the inter- 

 breeding of the two races. 



The geographical distribution of these forms in Russia is 

 as follows : — C. gallicus breeds throughout all the woods of 

 Central Russia and on the western borders of the steppes, as 

 far east as Semirechje : it is not uncommon about Vernoje. 

 In Western Russia this bird breeds in Livonia, and has been 

 found during the summer in Esthonia, as well as in the 

 Government of St. Petersburg ; but we do not know if it 

 breeds in the two latter provinces. To the east the northern 

 limit of distribution of C. gallicus is the Upper and Middle 

 Volga as far as the mouth of the Kama ; but it does not 

 breed so far north, and is very rare in the country near the 

 Volga. It is more common south of lat. 55°, common in 

 Western Russia, rarer eastwards from the Dnieper. In 

 Southern Russia it is found in Bessarabia, and in the Govern- 

 ments of Podolsk, Kiev, and Kharkov, and probably 

 occasionally breeds throughout the whole country from the 

 Governments of Tambov and Voronesh to the Ural. 



C. orientalis is found at present in the steppes near the 

 Ural river, near the mouths of the Volga and the Don, and 

 in the steppes of New Russia ; it is rare everywhere. 



Pernis apivorus. 



The Honey-Buzzard breeds regularly in all the well- wooded 



* This term signifies woods surrounded by plains or fields, being a 

 literal translation from tlie Russian, 



