120 Messrs. H. Seebohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 



Anthus see boh mi. Dresser. 



During our voyage down the great river we moored our 

 boat, on the evening of the 15th June, on the shore of au 

 island a little to the north of the arctic circle. The land was 

 flat and marshy, for the most part covered with willows, with 

 here and there a birch and an alder. Seebohm turned out at 

 three in the morning to shoot ; and his attention was soon 

 arrested by the song of a bird with which he was unfamiliar. 

 The bird remained for nearly half an hour in the air, wheeling 

 round and round, like a Lark hovering, with expanded wings 

 and tail, whilst it was singing. The first part of its song was 

 like the trill of a TemmincVs Stint, or like the concluding 

 notes of the Wood-Warbler^s song, so aptly described by 

 Gilbert White as its '^shivering note.'"' This was succeeded 

 by a low guttural warble, such as the Bluethroat sometimes 

 makes, as if the bird were attempting to trill whilst inhaling 

 breath. After some time the bird alighted on a willow, and 

 continued its song there. It was afterwards heard to sing on 

 the ground, and was finally shot in a swamp, where it ap- 

 peared to be feeding, almost up to its belly in water. An 

 hour afterwards Harvie Brown's attention was called to 

 another bird of the same species, singing in like manner ; and 

 after watching it for a short time, he succeeded in securing it. 

 Both birds proved to be males, and quite distinct from any 

 species with which either of us was acquainted. The hind 

 claw is long, like that of A. pratensis ; and the general cha- 

 racter of the bird resembles a large and brilliantly plumaged 

 A. trivialis. Uj)on our return home five skins of this bird 

 were submitted to our friend Mr. Dresser, who, after com- 

 paring it with all the known Indian and other species of 

 this genus, pronounced it to be new. He will describe and 

 figure it in the next Part of his excellent work the ' Birds 

 of Europe.' At Gorodok we spent the whole night of the 

 17-1 8th June shooting on the shore. The country here is a 

 sort of rolling prairie-land, some parts dry moor, with birch 

 or juniper and a few pines, and the lower land willow-swamps 

 and marshes. On the marshy ground we saw many Ruffs 

 and Red-necked Plialaropcs, and found our new Pipit by no 



