CHAP. XI. 



SIBERIAN STONECHAT. 



117 



frequenting some low willows, uttering a plaintive call-note, 

 a single note repeated at intervals. We were under the im- 

 pression that we were adding a new bird to the European 

 list, but we afterwards found that our discovery had been 

 forestalled by M. Meves, of Stockholm, who had found 

 it some years previously in the government of Perm. A 

 third specimen which we added to our list was a skylark.* 

 On our return home we found that M. Znaminsky had also 

 been out shooting, and had bagged some very interesting 

 birds for us ; five green wagtails, three meadow pipits, two 

 red- throated pipits, and a stonechat,f the latter not the 

 European but the Indian species, and a new and interesting 

 addition to the European fauna. M. Znaminsky's hunting- 

 ground had been a marshy piece of land just behind the 

 town, sprinkled over with small spruce firs, bushes of stunted 

 birch, juniper, and dwarf rhododendrons (Ledum palustre). 

 To this spot we betook ourselves the next morning, and 

 found it to be a favourite resting-place of migratory birds. 



latter is much greener above and much 

 yellower underneath, and has dark 

 brown instead of black legs. 



* The skylark (Alauda arvensis, 

 Linn.) is found all over the 1 palaearctic 

 region, from the British Islands east- 

 wards into Sibeiia and North China, 

 being a resident in the temperate 

 regions ; the Arctic birds migrating in 

 autumn to South Europe, North Africa, 

 North-West India, and North China. 

 We only met with two examples, and 

 therefore conclude that we were beyond 

 its ordinary breeding-range. 



t The Siberian stonechat (Pratincola 

 maura, Pall.) differs from the British 

 and European species in having a pure 

 white unspotted rump and nearly black 

 axillaries. The eastern form, found by 

 us in Europe for the first time, breeds 

 in the southern Arctic and northern 

 temperate regions, from the valley of 

 Petchora eastwards to the Pacific, 

 wintering in Persia, India, Burmah, 

 and South China. In the valley of the 

 Petchora we did not see them farther 

 north than latitude 66. 



