326 



it has great resemblance in some of its actions. Its tail, 

 however, is in constant motion, being alternately spread 

 laterally and closed. It breeds chiefly in wet places over- 

 grown with willows and bog-plants. The nest is built on 

 the ground, generally in the side of a hole, and consists of 

 a large foundation of leaves and grass loosely piled together, 

 in the midst of which is a more carefully constructed and 

 deep cup of finer materials. The eggs, to the number of 

 six, are shining, and appear to be of an olive-colour, deep 

 when they are fresh, but soon paling, and caused by the 

 suffusion of reddish-brown or the confluence of innumerable 

 markings of that tint on a greenish-blue ground. Some are 

 entirely whole-coloured, while others shew the ground plainly 

 between the markings. They measure from '78 to '65 by 

 from '59 to '51 in. Though the old birds are shy, the 

 young, when they have left their parents, often frequent 

 the neighbourhood of houses. In Asiatic Kussia, according 

 to Pallas, there is no bird in whose nest the Cuckow more 

 frequently lays its eggs than this. 



The red-spotted form of Bluethroat is found in winter 

 throughout India and North-eastern Africa as far as 

 Abyssinia. In spring it sets out northwards, reaching the 

 far east of Siberia on the one side, and apparently stretching 

 diagonally across Europe on the other, its summer-quarters 

 being the more northern parts of the Russian Empire and, 

 as already mentioned, of Scandinavia. It is believed not to 

 breed on this side of lat. 59° N. in Norway or of 64° in 

 Sweden, and on those parallels only in the mountains ; but 

 it occurs thence to the most northern limit of either country, 

 its elevation above the sea-level gradually decreasing as it 

 approaches the Arctic Ocean. In Siberia, it was found 

 breeding not rarely on the Boganida, in lat. 70° N., by Dr. 

 von Middendorff", who expressly states that all the birds he 

 saw belonged to this form, as also does Herr Radde. In 

 the countries intervening between its summer and winter- 

 quarters it appears only as a migrant, and it occurs, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Swinhoe, generally throughout China ; but as 

 regards that part of Europe over which it probably passes 



