CHAP. XIV. 



SIBERIAN PIPIT. 



165 



not familiar. It came from a bird singing high in the air, 

 like a lark. I spent an hour watching it. Once it remained 

 up in the sky nearly half-an-hour. The first part of the 

 song was like the trill of a Temminck's stint; or like the 

 concluding notes of the wood- warbler's song. This was suc- 

 ceded by a low guttural warble, resembling that which the 

 blue-throat sometimes makes. The bird sang while hover- 

 ing; it afterwards alighted on a tree, and then descended 

 to the ground, still continuing to sing. I shot one, and 

 my companion, an hour after, shot another. Both birds 

 proved to be males, and quite distinct from any species 

 with which either of us was previously acquainted. The 

 long hind claw was like that of the meadow-pipit, and 

 the general character of the bird resembled a large and 

 brilliantly-coloured tree-pipit. It was very aquatic in its 

 habits, frequenting the most marshy ground amongst the 

 willows. 



On our return home five skins of this bird were submitted 

 to our friend Mr. Dresser, who pronounced it to be a new 

 species, and described and figured it in a work which he was 

 then publishing on the Birds of Europe. In honour of my 

 having been the first to disover it, he named it after me, 

 AntJius seebolimi* but, alas for the vanity of human wishes ! 



* The Siberian pipit (Anthus gustavi, 

 Swinhoe) was perhaps the most in- 

 teresting discovery which we made 

 during our journey. It was first de- 

 scribed by Swinhoe in 1863, from 

 specimens obtained at Amoy, in South 

 China, on migration. It is seldom that 



the history of an obscure bird is so 

 suddenly and completely worked out 

 as has been the case with this species. 

 In 1869 G. R. Gray, of the British 

 Museum, redescribed the species as 

 Anthus batchianensis, from skins col- 

 lected by Wallace on the island of 



