PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 441 



barred with olive-grey, and the under tail-coverts are striated with olive-green. 

 After the autumn moult, the crown, hind-neck, and mantle are of a uniform olive- 

 green, relieved on the crown with indistinct striations of a darker shade. The 

 hinder scapulars are indistinctly spotted with white, but the wing-coverts and 

 long inner secondaries are spotted as in summer. The throat, fore-breast, and 

 flanks are of a uniform ash-grey with a slight buff tinge. The iris is dark brown, 

 and the legs yellowish olive. The juvenile plumage resembles that of the adult 

 in summer, but the spots are ochreous instead of white, the flanks are of a 

 uniform ash-grey, tinged with buff, and the fore-breast is faintly striated with 

 white. The young in down is of a rich, pale buff. On the crown is a large solid 

 patch of dark chocolate-brown, and on the nape a horse-shoe loop of the same 

 hue, enclosing a buff spot. A line of chocolate-brown traverses the lores, and is 

 continued behind the eye along the side of the head. On the hind-neck is a patch 

 of chocolate-brown, while a median line of chocolate-brown runs down the back. 

 On either side of this runs a similar line, and below this is a short thick bar of the 

 same hue the femoral bar. The under parts are white, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. There is only one undoubted instance of this bird breed- 

 ing in the British Isles, namely in 1853, when Hancock obtained a nest of eggs 

 and shot the male bird on Prestwick Car in Northumberland. It may possibly 

 have bred in Norfolk before 1846 (see Zoologist, p. 1324), but the supposed nesting 

 in Elgin has been shown to be unauthenticated. Outside the British Isles it breeds 

 in Scandinavia up to the Arctic Ocean, and also in North Russia to Lapland and 

 the tundra bordering the White and Kara Seas. Southward it breeds in some 

 numbers in Denmark and Holland, less commonly in Belgium, while it is said to 

 nest in France, and Saunders believed it to have bred in Central Spain. Possibly 

 it may also nest locally in N. Italy and the Danube valley, and it undoubtedly 

 does so in Friesland, West and East Prussia, Pomerania, etc., the Baltic Provinces, 

 and many other parts of Russia south to the Caucasus. In Asia its range extends 

 across the northern part of the continent east to Kamtschatka, N. China, and the 

 Commander Isles. Its migration range is extensive, and it winters not only in 

 the Mediterranean basin, but also in Africa south to the Cape and Natal ; also 

 in Southern Asia to Persia, India, Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Japan, the 

 islands of Malaysia, and casually in Australia and the Hawaiian Isles. It has 

 also been recorded from the Faeroes. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. An uncommon bird of passage, chiefly to the east and 

 south coasts of Great Britain, and in the autumn months (see p. 501). [A. L. T.] 



