52 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



for me. It airived tAvo days ago, and mauy, mauy tbauks for tlie con- 

 tents thereof, which to me are very valuable indeed. 



By this mail I shall send off a small box with skins, all I had, and, as 

 I fear, of very little value to you. Perhaps the suite of Sylvia suecicaj 

 Linn., may interest you, as the females and male in winter dress are 

 perfectly reliable. The other form, ^S*. leucocyanea, Brehm, comes very 

 rarely so far north as Heligoland, and the few instances it has turned 

 up from four to six weeks earlier than the suecica in spring. I have sent 

 for your examination a skin of Lanius major ^ Pall., with the alar white 

 mark extending over the bases of primaries only, and w^hich I suppose, 

 from M'hat I see in Richardson and Swaiuson's " Faun. Bor. Amer.," is 

 coincident with their Lan. horealis.* Perhaps we have here to deal 

 with a case similar to that of Alauda alpestris, viz, a gradual extension 

 westward from an originally American home. Up to October, 1847, A- 

 alpestris was here an excessively rare apjjearance, known only to a very 

 few sportsmen ; but at the fall of that year there was a very great influx 

 of birds from the east {Xeiyia sabinii may be counted among the rest), 

 and with these A. alpestris appeared in such numbers that one young- 

 man succeeded in shooting above a score during one afternoon. Ever 

 since, this species has been a numerous and regular bird of passage dur- 

 ing October and November of each successive year. I have packed for 

 you a male and female, which, as coming from the westernmost j)oint 

 almost of their now regular line of migration, may be of some interest 

 for the sake of comparing with the original stock.t I saw once a skin 

 from America, an, old male bird, which was of a rather intense brick-red 

 color round the shoulders and wing-coverts, whereas these parts with 

 our birds are always of a pinkish, vinaceous tinge. If the above colora- 

 tion with your birds be the prevalent one I should like much the pos- 

 session of such an old male specimen. | Amongst the Pipit suite there 

 is one Anthus richardi, a regular autumnal visitant here, from the far 

 east of Asia (Daouria), § and if of interest to you I will next fall try to 

 l)rocure some more skins for you. 



I am greatly gratified at finding that many points of your observa- 

 tions || form already a part of my manuscript. Your remark that "if 



* This specimen is not L. horealis, but seems referable to the L. exenhitor oi Eiirope. — 



R. RiDGWAY. 



t The examples sent by Mr. Giitke resemble very closely in their robust build and 

 dark colors the specimens usually obtained in eastern North America in -winter, but 

 have the yellow of the head more extended, this color in fact invading even the whole 

 pileum. They can easily be matched, however, even in this respect from a large 

 series. — R. Ridgway. 



t The specimen here alluded to was very likely the var. chrysolwma of California 

 and Mexico, which has, at all seasons, the vinaceous tints of the northern forms re- 

 placed by a rusty cinnamon color. (Conf. Hist. N. Am. B., II, pp. 1411-44. )^R. 

 Ridgway. 



^ Do not these east Asiatic species cross over the Pacific from Kamtchatka via the 

 Aleutian Islands ? 



\\Co)if. " The Distribution and Migrations of North American Birds." Am. Jour. 

 Science & Arts, XLI, 1866, 78-90, 184-192, 337-347. 



