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



racter we should at once more than double the number of 

 supposed species. 



In the valley of the Yen-e-say' both varieties were equally 

 common. I only found the extreme white- winged form 

 among the males. 



This Wagtail was the first thin-billed bird to arrive on the 

 Arctic circle in any numbers. The first break up of the ice 

 on the 1st of June was the signal of its appearance. I found 

 it as far north as we went, i. e. lat. 71 J. 



The geographical distribution of this bird is very curious, 

 As Middendorff did not find it, we may take the watershed 

 between the Yen-e-say' and the Lay '-na as its eastern boundary, 

 whence it extends westwards as far as the Atlantic on the 

 continent of Europe, but only appears accidentally in the 

 British Isles. As you ascend the Yen-e-say' from the Arctic 

 circle, this bird abounds on the banks of the river until you 

 near Yen -e-saisk' (about lat. 59), when suddenly it disap- 

 pears, and its place is taken by M . personata. From Yen-e- 

 saisk' to Kras-no-yarsk', and westwards until you cross the 

 meridian of Calcutta, M. personata abounds, after which, 

 across Siberia and Europe, you find no white Wagtail but 

 M. alba. 



There appears, however, to be a colony of M. alba still 

 further to the east. Middendorff had a skin sent him from 

 Birjussa, about halfway between Yen-e-saisk' and Lake Bai- 

 kal ; and there is no doubt that it is a common bird in the 

 neighbourhood of that lake, as skins collected in that locality 

 by Dr. Dybowsky are not rare in collections. From this 

 colony these birds migrate in great numbers across Mongolia 

 and the extreme west of China, and doubtless find their way 

 thence to India. 



MOTACILLA PERSONATA, Gould. 



This is a very well-marked species, differing from M. alba 

 in having the black on the breast confluent with the black 

 on the neck. Well-marked examples show even more white 

 on the wing-coverts than in the most marked M. alba, var. 

 dukhunensis, whilst others are similar in this respect to typical 



