CHAP. XII. 



BLUE-THROATED WARBLER. 



127 



thermometer marked only 30. The next day was bright, but 

 cold, with a light north wind blowing. We went for another 

 long tramp through the pine woods : very few birds were to 

 be seen. We shot a pair of grosbeaks, a fieldfare, and a 

 blue-throated warbler.* We saw a Siberian jay, for whose 

 nest we had a long search, which resulted in our finding 

 two old ones. Whether these were nests of the Siberian 

 jay or of the pine grosbeak, we could not, however, deter- 

 mine. Twice we heard the note of the Siberian chiffchaff, 

 but we could not see or get a shot at the birds. 



The smart frost returned during the night. In the 

 morning, however, the wind veered round to the east, and it 

 was warm ; in the afternoon it was very hot. Five hours' 

 hard walking through the woods in the early morning 

 resulted in nothing. I did not bring down a single bird. 

 My companion shot two blue-throated warblers ; they had 

 now grown as common as the willow warbler. The blue- 

 throated warbler is not inaptly called the Swedish mocking- 

 bird. Sometimes it is shy and retiring, seeking food in the 

 densest thickets and bushes ; haunting the marshy grounds, 

 sprinkled over with small spruce fir, dwarf willows and 

 juniper. But when newly arrived from its winter home, 



* The blue-throated warbler (Cyane- 

 cula suecica, Linn.) has only twice been 

 met with in the British Islands. It 

 breeds within the Arctic circle, or at 

 high elevations above the limit of 

 forest growth, in both Europe and 

 Asia, occasionally crossing Behring's 

 Straits into Alaska. In Western 

 Kurope it is replaced by a nearly allied 



species, C. kucocyana (Brehm.) which 

 differs in having the red spot in the 

 centre of the blue throat replaced by 

 a white one. The blue-throat winters 

 in North Africa as far south as Abys- 

 sinia, India, and South China. In the 

 valley of the Petchora we did not ob- 

 serve it farther north than latitude 

 68. 



