_~RED-THROATED PIPIT. 231 
stage of migration, and probably continued their journey northwards 
the same night. In twelve days, although we had seen plenty of birds, 
we were only able to secure five males and one female. On this occasion 
we bagged ten males and one female in a couple of hours.  Occa- 
sionally we heard them singing on the ground. When disturbed, after 
repeated shots they settled, some on the railings, some on the house- 
roofs, and some in a willow tree. We saw nothing more of this bird at 
Ust Zylma nor for a hundred and fifty miles down the great river. When 
we reached the tundra the Red-throated Pipit was again common and 
busily engaged in breeding. We found plenty of their nests. The com- 
monest bird on the tundra was the Lapland Bunting, and the next 
commonest the Red-throated Pipit. The nests of both these species were 
placed in recesses on the sides of the tussocky ridges which intersected the 
bogs. The eggs of the latter bird varied from the reddish variety of the 
eggs of the Tree-Pipit to those of the Lapland Bunting; but the nests 
were always easily to be distinguished from those of the last-mentioned bird, 
being lined with fine dry grass instead of a profusion of feathers. The 
Red-throated Pipit was very fond of perching in the willow bushes in 
the sheltered hollows of the tundra and on the islands of the delta. 
I found the Red-throated Pipit equally common in the valley of the 
Yenesay. It arrived on the Arctic circle on the 6th of June, in the second 
half of the great spring migration in this district, a month after the Swans 
and the Geese, about the same time as the Plovers and Sandpipers, but a 
week or more earlier than the Sedge-Warbler, the Arctic Bluethroat, and 
the Petchora Pipit. 
The nest of the Red-throated Pipit is entirely made of dry grass, the 
coarser pieces being used for the foundation and the finest reserved for 
the lining. The eggs of the Red-throated Pipit are from four to six 
in number; they bear a general resemblance to those of the Tree-Pipit, 
and, like the eggs of that bird, may be divided into two types. One of 
these, like its representative in the Tree-Pipit’s eggs, 1s very similar to 
the eggs of the Meadow-Pipit, but the markings are seldom so profusely 
distributed over the whole surface of the egg; the other type, im which 
the spots are darker and much more distinct, and partake frequently of 
the streaky character of a Bunting’s egg, resembles more the eggs of the 
Lapland Bunting than the other type of the eggs of the Tree-Pipit. The 
ground-colour in both types varies from buffish or pinkish white to very 
pale greenish blue, and the surface-markings vary from neutral brown 
to reddish brown ; the underlying markings vary from pale brown to pale 
grey. On one type the spots are large and confluent, but sufficiently wide 
apart to show a considerable amount of the ground-colour between them ; 
but on the other the spots are small, and so thickly dispersed over the 
entire surface as almost to conceal the ground-colour. On some eggs 
