RODENTS— UNGULATES— NORTHERN NIGHTINGALE 445 



ingress and egress, and even this is stopped up in autumn as soon as the cold 

 becomes severe. From the store-rooms of their burrows the susliks dig, before the 

 winter sleep, a new channel leading nearly to the surface of the ground so as to be 

 ready for opening the following spring, and also for use as an outlet to the store- 

 room in summer. In this abode, the age of which may be ascertained by the 

 number of obliterated holes, susliks store their food, which consists of seeds, roots, 

 fruit, herbage, and sometimes birds and mice. By the inhabitants of the steppes 

 the susliks themselves are eaten ; if caught sufficiently early they can be easily 

 tamed, and make satisfactory pets. In central Europe the species occurs only in 

 the neighbourhood of Vienna, in the south-east of Bohemia, and in Silesia, but it 

 has a wider range than the other forms, extending from Germany through the 

 south of Russia, southern Siberia, and the Kirghiz steppes eastwards to the Altai. 

 To what extent the beaver may occur in eastern Europe cannot 



yet be determined with certainty ; although it may probably dwell 

 here and there in the Rokitno marshes. The squirrel-tailed dormouse of central 

 Europe is represented in the Caspian area, but the garden species does not ap- 

 parently range farther east than Hungary and Galicia. Its place is taken by the 

 somewhat larger tree-dormouse (Glis dry as), which is reddish brown in colour, and 

 easily recognised by the black stripe on each side of the head running from the 

 nose through the eye to the ear. The range of this species extends from upper 

 Silesia and Vienna to the Caucasus and Siberia, where its favourite haunts are 

 among hazel-bushes and oak-forests. 



Several ungulate and other mammals mainly characteristic of 



Asia extend more or less widely into eastern Europe, where are 

 also found some of those already mentioned under the heading of Central Europe. 

 Among the latter the red deer, which is absent from the greater part of eastern 

 Europe, reappears in the Crimea and the immediate vicinity of the Caucasus where, 

 as probably in the eastern Carpathians, it is represented by the large dark-coloured 

 race known as the eastern red deer (Gervus elaphus maral). In the Caucasus also 

 occurs the bison, now widely separated from its fellows in Lithuania, although in 

 past time the species probably ranged over much of the intervening area. The 

 Caucasus is likewise the habitat of two peculiar species of goat known as tur, as 

 well as of the wild goat, but these are best noticed among the fauna of western 

 Asia. The same is the case with the great mole-rat (Spalax typhlus), as well as 

 certain smaller rodents, which are found in some parts of eastern Europe. 



Northern The bird-fauna of eastern Europe closely resembles that of the 



Nightingale. Mediterranean countries in its southern portion, and that of central. 

 and partly also of northern, Europe in the western and northern districts. Never- 

 theless the main distributional area of certain species lies well within the area 

 under consideration. Among these latter is the so-called northern nightingale 

 (Daulias philomela) which, like the true nightingale, dwells in bushy situations 

 near water, especially along river banks overgrown with willows and alders 

 and covei-ed with dry foliage. It differs from the true nightingale by the dark 

 grey upper portion of the breast, and is also distinguished by being darker 

 brown above, as well as by the darker tail and smaller bastard primary, and by 

 the white throat being indistinctly bordered with grey. About half an inch 



