Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 333 



nearest tree with a peculiar slow undulating flight. I care- 

 fully preserved them, and fed them with the bodies of the 

 birds I skinned, as I was anxious to secure a good series of 

 their eggs. They treated me, however, in a most ungrateful 

 manner. They continued to be abundant until about the 

 7th of June, when the snow was pretty well melted from the 

 ground. They then vanished altogether, and, with the ex- 

 ception of a couple of birds I picked up later, in full moult, 

 I saw no more of them until they reappeared in flocks at 

 various stations on the return journey. I offered considerable 

 sums for a nest containing eggs ; but both the Russian peasants 

 and the natives informed me that they had never heard of 

 any one who had seen the nest of a " Ve-roff'-ky," as they 

 call this bird. They doubtless retire into the recesses of the 

 forest to breed. 



PICA RUSTICA, Scop. 



Magpies were very common as far as Yen-e-saisk', but dis- 

 appeared further north, at about lat. 60. I did not see any 

 during the summer within the Arctic circle; but Mr. Ulemann, 

 an exile from West Poland, and a very intelligent observer 

 of birds, assured me that he saw a pair every year at Vare- 

 shin'-sky, in lat. 69, and had occasionally seen one as far 

 north as Doo-dink'-a, in lat. 69. 



STURNUS VULGARIS, Linn. 



I did not observe the Starling until we had almost reached 

 Yen-e-saisk' on the return journey. At that town it was 

 extremely abundant, for the most part in large flocks. 



LANIUS MAJOR, Pall. 



This Shrike was very common on the roadsides as we drove 

 from Yen-e-saisk 7 to Tomsk. It was very fond of perching 

 on the telegraph-wires. It differs from L. excubitor in only 

 showing one white bar across the wings. The white bases to 

 the primaries, from the second to the ninth inclusive, extend 

 for about half an inch beyond the wing-coverts; whilst in 

 the secondaries the white bases are entirely concealed by the 

 wing-coverts, or are absent altogether. Russow, at the St. 

 Petersburg Museum, told me that this is the common eastern 



