SCARLET ROSE-FINCH. 47 



Russia on migration, but breeds in Asia Minor, on the Caucasus up to 

 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and on the Ural Mountains. To 

 the north it ranges slightly beyond the Arctic circle ; and to the south it 

 breeds throughout Turkestan, Gilgit, Cashmere, and Mongolia. Dybowsky 

 found it in Kamtschatka ; but it has not been recorded from Japan. Great 

 numbers pass through North China on migration, a few remaining to breed 

 in the mountains near Pekin. Its principal winter-quarters appear to be 

 Northern and Central India and the Burma peninsula; but it occa- 

 sionally strays into Europe as far west as France and Italy. It appears 

 also to be an accidental visitor to Persia and Scinde. There are several 

 allies of this bird in Palestine, the Caucasus, Turkestan, South Siberia, 

 the Himalayas, and North America. One of the American species (C. 

 purpureus] approaches very near to our bird, and may prove to be only 

 subspecifically distinct from it, but may be distinguished by the more 

 carmine (less scarlet) tint of the plumage. 



The Scarlet Rose-Finch is not particularly interesting at its breeding- 

 grounds. Such a fine-looking bird, perching so conspicuously as it does, 

 is sure to attract attention ; but I did not observe any thing in its habits 

 to distinguish it from other Finches which was worthy of note. North of 

 lat. 68, when the trees began to diminish in size, it disappeared. The 

 call-note is very similar to that of the Canary. In autumn these birds 

 collect into flocks, and are amongst the first birds to migrate southwards 

 "before the approach of winter. 



The migrations of the Scarlet Rose-Finch are very interesting. It ap- 

 pears probable that all the migrants of this species to Europe, from the 

 Baltic to the Ural Mountains, winter in India. This fact alone suggests 

 the theory that it is only a recent emigrant to our continent ; and even 

 within ornithologically historic times it is said to have become common in 

 Finland and the Baltic Provinces. Another fact which supports this theory 

 may be found in the dates of its migrations. Taczanowsky says that in 

 Warsaw this bird does not arrive before the middle of May ; and this is 

 confirmed by Russow, who says that in the Baltic Provinces it is one of 

 the latest summer visitors, arriving from the 8th to the 10th of May. On 

 the other hand, in Siberia, where birds usually arrive much later than in 

 Western Europe, the Scarlet Rose-Finch is recorded at considerably earlier 

 dates. Eversmann says that they arrive in the Southern Ural early in 

 April. Radde says he observed them at Tarei-nor, in Dauria, on the 7th 

 of April, and near Lake Baikal on the 26th of that month. Middendorff 

 obtained one on the shores of the Pacific, in lat. 55, about the same date ; 

 and I first saw them on the Arctic circle, in the valley of the Yenesay, on 

 the 6th of June, almost at the northern limit of their range, in the first of 

 the three great weeks of migration. It is only fair, however, to mention 

 that Dybowsky did not see them at Lake Baikal until after the middle of 



