48 The Red-Spotted Bluethroat. 



Family- Tl RDID/E. Sub/avnly— TUKDIN^. 



The Red-Spotted Bluethroat. 



Cya7iccula sinclca, LiNX. 



ALSO knowu as the " Arctic Blue-throated Robin " ; it is an occasional 

 straggler to Great Britain, but chiefl}' to the southern and eastern coasts 

 in autumn and spring ; it has, however, been recorded from Scotland.* 

 Seebohm gives the following account of its distribution : — 



" The Arctic Blue-throat breeds within the Arctic circle, or in the birch- 

 regions at high elevations of more southerly climes, both in Europe and Asia; in 

 the latter continent it breeds as far south as the Hiraala3'as, and occasionall}- 

 crosses Behring's Straits into Alaska. The European birds pass through Central 

 and Southern Europe and Palestine on migration, and winter in North Africa as 

 far south as Abyssinia ; whilst the Asiatic birds, with the exception of those 

 individuals breeding at high elevations in the south, pass through Turkestan, 

 Mongolia, and North China, and winter in Baluchistan, India and Ceylon, Burma, 

 the Andaman Islands, and South China." 



The male Bluethroat in breeding plumage has the upper surface brown ; the 

 tail-coverts chestnut, the two central tail feathers dark brown, the remainder with 

 the basal half chestnut and the outer half dark brown ; a white or pale buff 

 superciliaiy stripe from the base of the upper mandible to some distance behind 

 the eye ; the cheeks, chin, throat and gorget glossj- cobalt blue, centred with 

 chestnut, bordered with black, and then on the chest again bounded b}' a belt of 

 chestnut ; remainder of under parts huffish white ; the wing coverts and axillaries 

 yellower ; bill black, feet brown, iris brown. 



The female is much duller, showing none of tlie blue or chestnut colouring 

 of the uialc until old, when she sometimes more nearly resembles him in hues ; 

 the band across her chest is dark l)rown. 



In the autumn much of the bright ci)louring is lost, the new feathers being 

 broadly fringed with grc)-, but in the spring this bordering disappears. 



* About sixteen or seventeen iustaiices of its occiirreiire lia<l been reronldl ii]i to i."<77, but in September 

 1.S83. considerable numbers were observed on the eastern coast (chieflv in Norfolk! ami a still greater number 

 in 1884. 



