36 EMBERIZID^. 



prefer young woods with a mixture of pine, fir, alder, and 

 birch. We often heard their sweet low song, more resem- 

 bling the warbling of some Sylvia than of an Ember iz a, 

 which was generally poured forth from the top of a tree ; 

 they had also a low cry of alarm, which may be expressed 

 by the words ' tick, tick, tick' repeated at intervals of about 

 a second. We did not find any nests, but obtained the 

 young in several stages." 



Pallas, who in Dauuria discovered this species, described 

 it as being common about the mountain-torrents and in the 

 higher larch-woods of that country, subsequently adding 

 willow-beds to these localities. It is there migratory but 

 often killed by the cold. In spring it eats beetles of the 

 family Tenebrionidce. His successors in the exploration of 

 Eastern Siberia have amplified his observations. Dr. von 

 Middendorff found it breeding on the Boganida, where, how- 

 ever, it was very rare and he only obtained two of its nests 

 from which he figures three eggs. He also observed it on 

 passage on the shore of the Sea of Ochotsk. Dr. von 

 Schrenck found a nest on the Lower Amoor in the opening 

 of a fir-forest. This contained five eggs, was placed on 

 the ground between the tussocks of a swamp, and was art- 

 lessly built of grass-stalks and larch-leaves. Prof. Radde, 

 in the south of Eastern Siberia, obtained nearly a score 

 of specimens, including the young and old of both sexes, 

 but as a breeding bird it seemed to him to be rare and 

 segregated. It was late to arrive and late to depart. In 

 the north of China Mr. Swinhoe says it is abundant, spread- 

 ing southward in winter. At the same season it is found 

 over the whole extent of the Himalayas, and would seem 

 occasionally to wander into the plains of India during the 

 cold weather, for Jerdon who had already procured it at 

 Darjeeling afterwards shot one near Kolassee in the Purneah 

 district. Mr. Hodgson obtained it in Nepaul, and Prof. 

 Adams in the North-west Provinces. 



The eggs are figured by Dr. von Middendorff as having an 

 ochreous-white ground, blotched and spotted with reddish- 

 brown and black, and measuring from '88 to '1 by from -58 



