4 Mr. H. Seebohm on the OrnithoJoyy of Siberia. 



uttering their various alarm-notes as they flew round or 

 waited on some shrub or phxnt with their bills full of mos- 

 quitoes, anxious to feed their young as soon as I was out of 

 their way. As I was returning to the shore, and descending 

 a steep sloping bank covered with patches of dwarf birch and 

 willow, overlooking a flat willow-swamp which evidently once 

 formed a little delta at the mouth of the dricd-up Doo-din'-ka, 

 my attention was attracted by a pair of Dusky Thrushes 

 loudly proclaiming the vicinity of their nest. I shot one of 

 them, and, after a diligent search of half an hour, found the 

 nest in tlie fork of a willow bush level with the ground. It 

 was exactly like the nest of a Fieldfare, lined with dried 

 grass, and contained, alas ! five young birds about a week old. 



At noon we weighed anchor ; but at midnight it was blow- 

 ing such a stiff gale that we were afraid to round the " broad 

 nose " of Tol-stan-os' in the ^ Ibis -,' so we cast anchor under 

 the lee of the mud clifts of the Yen-e-say', and I again went 

 on shore. In some places the cliffs were very steep, and were 

 naked mud or clay. In others the slope was more gradual, 

 aud was covered with mud and alder bushes. Among these 

 bushes I found the Dusky Thrush again breeding, but was 

 only able to find one nest with five nearly fledged young. 

 The nest was placed, as before, in the fork of a willow, level 

 with the ground. This was the last time that I saw this 

 species of Thrush. 



There is considerable variation in the colour of the skins 

 of this s|>ecies which I Ijrought fi-oni the Yen-e-say', espe- 

 cially in the amount of black on the breast and red on the 

 upper plumage. Some specimens have more or less rufous 

 on the tail-feathers, approaching T. naumanni. One male in 

 particular has scarcely any red tinge in the plumage, and has 

 even grey instead of chestnut axillaries. The young in nest- 

 ling plumage differ from the young of T. pilaris, T. iliacus, 

 T. obsciirus, and T. atrigularis, in having more buff on the 

 wing and less buff" on the breast. 



TURDUS OBSCURUS, Gm. 



During the first week of June tlie forests were jiractically 



