42 BIRDS AND MAMMALS OF EAST SIBERIA [^Vof.'v*^' 



eggs, but it had been reached by the freshets, and the eggs lay in 

 water and had been deserted by the birds. These eggs are in color 

 and markings similar to those of related subspecies. They measure 

 (in inches) : — .76 X .56; .74 X .56; .73 X .56; .64 X .48, this lat- 

 ter being a ' runt.' 



Budytes leucostriatus Homeyer is, Hartert says after examining 

 the type, an aberrant specimen of B. taivanus Swinhoe, and we 

 can see no alternative but to give a name to the breeding bird of the 

 Arctic coast of East Siberia. It certainly cannot be referred to 

 B. flavus simillimus Hartert, which has the white superciliary only 

 from the eye backward, and which also is said by Hartert to breed 

 only in Kamchatka. It is in fact much more closely related to 

 B. flavus borealis Sund. than to any of the other forms. It may, 

 however, be distinguished from borealis by a very thin, though well 

 marked, white superciliary stripe running from the base of the bill 

 to well behind the eye, and by slightly larger size and rather heavier 

 bill ; the colors also are a little livelier, both above and below, and 

 the white of the chin is a little more extended. From the European 

 B. flavus flavus, the new form differs in darker, blacker, sides of 

 head and much 7iarroiver white superciliaries, as well as in having 

 less white on upper throat. Compared with B. flavus alascensis, 

 our bird is larger, with a longer tail ; it has a narrower superciliary 

 stripe, less white on upper throat, and is much brighter in color, 

 both above and below. 



Type, from Nijni Ivolymsk, Kolyma, Siberia, adult cf, no. 64,033, 

 M. C. Z., collected June 2, 1912, by Johan Koren. 



Characters. — More nearly related to Budytes flavus borealis Sund. of 

 arctic Europe, than to any of the other subspecies; differing from that 

 form in slightly larger size, slightly heavier bill, slightly livelier colors, — 

 the olive green of upper parts a little brighter and yellower, the yellow of 

 lower surface both richer and purer, the white of chin a little more extended 

 onto upper throat, — and in having a narrow white superciliary stripe from 

 base of bill to over the ear coverts i — a mere thread in the male, rather 

 more strongly marked in the female. 



1 Hartert has pointed out, in 'Die Vogel der palaarktischen Fauna' that traces 

 of a white superciliary stripe can occasionally be found in young specimens of 

 B. /. borealis. In our experience this occurs oftenest in young females. Even 

 these young individuals, however, never seem to have a complete superciliary, as 

 does P. f. plexus. 



