CHAP. XIV. 



ARCTIC WILLOW-WARBLER. 



159 



sandy island thinly covered with grass, we came upon a 

 party fishing with a seine-net ; we watched and saw the net 

 twice drawn without result. On this island we shot a hen 

 harrier, a cuckoo, and a short-eared owl. A few gulls were 

 flying about, the common gull and the Siberian herring- 

 gull. As we pulled on, I saw a party of six waxwings flying 

 north. Willow-warblers abounded ; I watched one for some 

 time, that allowed me to approach within six feet of it. 

 I noticed that some appeared to have a whiter throat and 

 a more rapid song than usual. One I heard vociferously 

 uttering a note unlike any that I have heard from the 

 willow-warbler, "tuz-zuk." These observations convinced 

 me that two species of willow-warblers exist in these parts, 

 and upon a careful examination of our skins afterwards I 

 found that I had shot an Arctic willow- warbler.* Sw r ans, 

 geese, ducks, especially the latter, were to be seen in the 

 ponds behind the fringing belts of willows; amongst these 

 we clearly identified the scaup t and the black scoter. We 



* The Arctic willow-warbler (Phyllo- 

 scopus borealis, Blasius) breeds in the 

 north of the palasarctic region from 

 Finmark, across Asia to Alaska towards 

 the northerly limit of forest growth, 

 and in a similar climate in the sub- 

 alpine districts of South-Eastern Siberia 

 and Mongolia. It passes in great 

 numbers on migration in spring and 

 autumn along the coast of China and 

 Formosa, and winters in the islands of 

 the Malay Archipelago, Malacca, Tenas- 

 serim, and the South Andaman Islands. 

 Although this is not the only species 

 breeding in North-East Europe which 



winters in the Malay Archipelago, it 

 seems highly probable, from the fact 

 of accidental stragglers having been 

 shot on Heligoland, that it may occa- 

 sionally stray as far as the British 

 Islands. The Arctic willow-warbler 

 differs from the three British species 

 in having a pale bar across the wings 

 formed by the greater wing-coverts 

 being nearly white at their tips. It 

 has the minute bastard primary of the 

 wood-wren, with a bill almost as wide 

 and stout as that of a reed- warbler. 



f The scaup-duck (Fuliijula mania, 

 Linn.) is also a circumpolar bird which 



