120 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. XL 



It was a curious fact that the day following, on returning 

 to the spot where we had seen and shot so many various 

 birds, we found it deserted ; there were nothing but willow- 

 warblers on it. Ked-throated pipits passed over singly and 

 in flocks; but none seemed disposed to alight. In a plan- 

 tation hard by, we heard a chaffinch sing ; but we did not get 

 a shot at it. We fell in there with a small flock of bram- 

 blings,* and secured a male that was not yet in full breeding 

 plumage. On the following day a thick mist came up the 

 Petchora, which cleared up about noon, and was followed by 

 a north-west breeze with gleams of sunshine and threatenings 

 of rain. Birds were few and sang little, the note of the 

 warblers being almost the only one we heard. We had an 

 excellent opportunity of identifying a white-tailed eagle, 

 that came almost within shot of us. Two cranes t passed 



Southern Europe. Eastwards it winters j North China, and Japan. In the Valley 

 in South Siberia, occasionally wander- | of the Petchora we found it an abundant 

 ing as far as the northern states of j species up to the Arctic circle. 

 North America. In the valley of the j f The common crane (Grus com- 



munis, Bechst.) is confined to the 



Petchora we did not observe it farther 

 north than latitude 65J. 



* The brambling (Fringilla monti- 

 fringilla, Linn.) appears to be confined 



eastern hemisphere, being replaced in 

 America by two allied species, Grus 

 canadiensis (Temm.) and Grus frater- 



to the eastern hemisphere, visiting the j culus (Baird). The increase of popu- 



British Islands in flocks during the ! lation has caused the crane to become 



winter. It breeds throughout the north- i little more than an accidental visitor 



ern portions of the palsearctic region j to the British Islands. It formerly 



frequenting the pine, and especially j bred throughout the whole of Europe, 



the birch forests at or near the limit | wherever marshes of sufficient extent 



of forest growth, wintering in most j and solitude were to be found, which 



parts of Central and Southern Europe, i principally remain at the present time 



and occasionally crossing the Mediter- f in Spain, Arctic Europe, and Turkey, 



ranean. Eastwards it winters in India, | It winters in the basin of the Mediter- 



