SCARLET ROSEH-FINCH. 47 
Russia on migration, but breeds in Asia Minor, on the Caucasus up to 
10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and on the Ural Mountains. To 
the north it ranges slightly beyond the Arctic circle ; and to the south it 
breeds throughout Turkestan, Gilgit, Cashmere, and Mongolia. Dybowsky 
found it in Kamtschatka ; but it has not been recorded from Japan. Great 
numbers pass through North China on migration, a few remaining to breed 
in the mountains near Pekin. Its principal winter-quarters appear to be 
Northern and Central India and the Burma peninsula; but it occa- 
sionally strays into Europe as far west as France and Italy. It appears 
also to be an accidental visitor to Persia and Scinde. There are several 
allies of this bird in Palestine, the Caucasus, Turkestan, South Siberia, 
the Himalayas, and North America. One of the American species (C. 
purpureus) approaches very near to our bird, and may prove to be only 
subspecifically distinct from it, but may be distinguished by the more 
carmine (less scarlet) tint of the plumage. 
The Scarlet Rose-Finch is not particularly interesting at its breeding- 
grounds. Such a fine-looking bird, perching so conspicuously as it does, 
is sure to attract attention; but I did not observe any thing in its habits 
to distinguish it from other Finches which was worthy of note. North of 
lat. 68°, when the trees began to diminish in size, it disappeared. The 
call-note is very similar to that of the Canary. In autumn these birds 
collect into flocks, and are amongst the first birds to migrate southwards 
before the approach of winter. 
The migrations of the Scarlet Rose-Finch are very interesting. It ap- 
pears probable that all the migrants of this species to Hurope, from the 
Baltic to the Ural Mountains, winter in India. This fact alone suggests 
the theory that it is only a recent emigrant to our continent; and even 
within ornithologically historic times it is said to have become common in 
Finland and the Baltic Provinces. Another fact which supports this theory 
may be found in the dates of its migrations. ‘Taczanowsky says that in 
Warsaw this bird does not arrive before the middle of May; and this is 
confirmed by Russow, who says that in the Baltic Provinces it is one of 
the latest summer visitors, arriving trom the 8th to the 10th of May. On 
the other hand, in Siberia, where birds usually arrive much later than in 
Western Kurope, the Scarlet Rose-Finch is recorded at considerably earlier 
dates. Eversmann says that they arrive in the Southern Ural early in 
April. Radde says he observed them at Tarei-nor, in Dauria, on the 7th 
of April, and near Lake Baikal on the 26th of that month. Middendorff 
obtained one on the shores of the Pacific, in lat. 55°, about the same date ; 
and I first saw them on the Arctic circle, in the valley of the Yenesay, on 
the 6th of June, almost at the northern limit of their range, in the first of 
the three great weeks of migration. It is only fair, however, to mention 
that Dybowsky did not see them at Lake Baikal until after the middle of 
