3^ 



THE ANIMAL LIFE OF SIBERIA 



The range of the scoter and the velvet scoter extends from the polar region some 



distance southwards. Of the mergansers the goosander abounds on Lake Baikal. 



The red-breasted merganser ranges up to 70° N. latitude in the Old World, as well 



as in the New, and is indigenous to Siberia. The smew (Mergus albellus) is 



another inhabitant of the north which appears regularly every year in central 



Europe. Although absent from Iceland and very rare in northern Norway, it is 



common in European and Asiatic Russia, near or a little south of the Polar Circle. 



Miffratine as far south as the Black Sea, Turkey, and Greece, it visits Poland, 



Hungary, Switzerland, and France, less frequently Denmark and Sweden, and 



rarely Holland and Great Britain. The smew is characterised by rising from 



the water without apparent effort, and its rapid flight, from which it drops 



suddenly on to the water. It frequently associates with the golden-eye, which it 



resembles when seen from a distance, although distinguished by the smaller body, 



and the more pointed head, marked with more white. When flying, it appears 



more slender, with a longer neck and narrower wings. The smew is 17 inches in 



length, and principally white in colour, although the face, back, edges and middle 



of the wings, the larger wing-coverts, and two narrow bands running from each 



side of the back to the breast are black. The long crest is greenish black, the 



sides are delicate grey, the tail-feathers grey with whitish tips, the beak bluish 



with a paler nail, and the feet bluish grey. The female is grey above, with a 



white throat, a blackish neck, and the crown and nape reddish brown. 



The cormorant ranges right across northern Asia ; and on Lake 

 Other Sea Birds. . . 



Baikal and elsewhere the shag, which is really a bird of the sea, 



appears in myriads. The black tern, the common tern, and the laughing gull 

 may be mentioned as species indigenous to the north of Europe and Asia and 

 North America. 



Of the grebes, the great crested, the red-necked, and the black-necked species 

 are also not only European but likewise Siberian and North American in habitat. 

 The same remark applies to the eared grebe (Podicipes auritus), which migrates 

 through Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland, northern Italy, and Hungary,, 

 and breeds in Greenland, Iceland, Britain, Scandinavia, Jutland, and the corre- 

 sponding latitudes of Russian Asia and North America. The last-named species, 

 which is 12 inches in length, has a black hood on the top and chestnut plumes 

 on the sides of the head, and is deep chestnut on the neck and sides. 

 Reptiles and Like the birds, the reptiles and amphibians of Siberia are 



Amphibians, essentially of a European type, although, owing to the severity of 

 tin- climate, the number of species is but small. Of the lizards, the viviparous 

 species, which in Europe reaches Lapland, inhabits Siberia from west to east, 

 while the European sand-lizard is met with only in the south-west. The viper 

 reaches the Polar Circle and ranges to the Pacific, and the ringed snake is found 

 as tar east as Lake Baikal and as far north as the sixty-fifth degree. 



Among tlir amphibians common to Europe and Siberia mention may be made 

 of the edible frog, whose northern boundary is 59° N. latitude, and whose eastern 

 limit extends to the Pacific. The same is the case with the common frog, which 

 inhabits Europe as Ear as northern Scandinavia; but the moor-frog is not found 

 so far east, although it occurs in western Siberia. The common toad ranges to 



