140 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIII. 



fifty feet from the ground. In this position it fell to my 

 companion's gun. It was a female. 



We heard the cuckoo's * familiar note repeatedly every day ; 

 the first time it was near midnight, soon after our arrival at 

 Habariki. 



The hooded crow and magpie were as abundant as usual 

 in this part of Europe. 



The Siberian jay was very common in the woods, and very 

 noisy ; all the more so, perhaps, for the number of young 

 birds among them. I saw on one occasion an old jay feeding 

 a young one. I shot the latter ; it was in the full plumage of 

 the first year. The old birds were very tame and easy to 

 secure ; their skins, however, were worthless, for they were 

 in full moult. The body bore no appearance of it, but the 

 wing and tail feathers were " in the pen." The flight of the 

 Siberian jay is noiseless, resembling somewhat that of the 

 owl, sailing with wings and tail expanded before alighting. 

 These birds like ascending from branch to branch, close by 

 the stem of a birch or fir. When they cannot hop from one 

 bough to another, they ascend the trunk in the fashion of 

 the woodpecker. This habit we both of us specially noted. 

 We did not hear their song, but they were constantly utter- 

 ing harsh loud cries ; the notes of some reminded us of those 

 of the peregrine at its nest ; I thought others resembled the 



* The cuckoo (Cuculus canorus, 

 Linn.) is a summer visitor to the whole 

 of Europe, passing through North 

 Africa on migration, and wintering in 

 Central Africa. On the Asiatic conti- 

 nent it appears to be also a summer 



visitor, but is found in the winter only 

 in Southern India, South China, and 

 the islands of the Malay Archipelago. 

 In the valley of the Fetchora we met 

 with it up to the Arctic Circle. 



