48 



with the call-note, the species should be noted afterwards as 

 of regular occurrence, is significant, and points to the fact of its 

 having been previously overlooked. The same has probably been 

 the case on our east coasts. So experienced an observer as Mr. 

 Cordeaux has expressed the opinion that it would be almost 

 impossible to detect the Eed-throated Pipit amongst a flock of 

 Meadow Pipits even with the aid of a good field glass. Further- 

 more, in various parts of the text the author includes A. Cervinus 

 amongst those species which are brought forward in evidence of 

 an east-to-west line of flight (p. 116). It is odd to read, there- 

 fore, that it " likewise adheres to a most rigid southerly course " 

 in its autumn migrations. 



In considering the migrations of this species Collett remarks : 

 — " Like most of the genuine migrants of the order Passeres, 

 the small birds do not reach their northern nesting-places across 

 the southern parts of Norway, but by the eastern route across 

 Russia and the Baltic provinces. One consequence of this is 

 that the Red-throated Pipit and Siberian Willow Warbler are 

 either not met with at all during migration in the southern 

 parts of the country, or appear there only occasionally and 

 accidentally " ("Bird Life in Arctic Norway"). 



Turning now to two other species singled out by the author, 

 viz., Eversmann's Warbler (Sijlvia borealis) and the Northern 

 Nightingale (Sylvia j^^iHomela) we find that the former of these is 

 stated "to direct its migration flight in an equally unswerving 

 southerly line." Unfortunately but little of the winter distribu- 

 tion of this tiny species is known, but it seems to be identical 

 with that of the Red-throated Pipit and several other species 

 breeding in Northern Europe, lying rather to the south-east than 

 the true south of the western limit of the breeding range. In 

 whatever manner the migration is conducted it will trend in the 

 former direction, and the chances of the species turning up in 

 Heligoland are thereby much reduced. Writing on this species, 

 Collett remarks : — " In Finmarken it is a recent immigrant, and 

 its migrations therefore do not pass southwards along the Baltic 

 provinces, like that of our other Arctic small birds, but it migrates 

 across the large river basins of Siberia, in order to reach down to 

 the Pacific Coast, China and India, where its chief winter home 

 is" (" Bird Life in Arctic Norway," p. 30). 



