38 ME. H. J. ELWES ON THE 



state, but so far as I coiilJ ascertain they do not exist in any 

 part of tlie Altai. 



Birds were not so numerous as I expected, althougli Cranes 

 and Ducks were plentiful in the marshes of the Kurai and 

 Tchuja Steppes. I was astonished to find a Scoter breeding 

 here, which proves to be the species described as Oidemia 

 Stejnegeri, and which is an inhabitant of the JST.W. American 

 coasts and North Pacific. It has never been hitherto procured, 

 as I am infornied by M. Alpheraky (who is at present engaged 

 on a monograph of the Anatidae of the Eussian Empire), farther 

 west than the Upper Amur. 



Game-birds were very scarce, though I observed Capercaillie, 

 Ptarmigan, and Quail, and in the highest and barest} parts of 

 the mountains the magnificent Tetraogalliis altaicus was not 

 uncommon, though very hard to approach. The only one which 

 I got within shot of was a hen bird with a brood of young one.'^, 

 and she fluttered along the ground before me just as a ptarmigan 

 would do in similar circumstances. 



I also saw a single pair of Ferdix harlata, Pallas, with newly 

 hatched young, on July 18 in a marshy larch wood at about 6000 

 feet elevation — a most unlikely place, as I should have thought, 

 in which to find such a bird. I do not think that the Eastern 

 Capercaillie (T. urogaJloides) is found in the Altai. The Caper- 

 caillie I saw were apparently the same as those of Euroj)e, 

 though in the Southern Uj al there is a well-marked variety with 

 a white breast, which may be specifically distinct. 



No ornithologist, so far as I know, jjas yet worked out the birds 

 of the Altai, and there are few other regions in Europe or Asia of 

 which it can now be said that they are unknown to the members 

 of the British Ornithologists' Union. One fact, however, may 

 be mentioned, as it bears upon the question raised recently by 

 Mr. Hartert as to the migration of the Siberian Nutcracker, 

 which he considers to be a distinct variety from the European 

 one. As we rowed down Lake Teletskoi on the 4th of August, 

 we saw large flocks of Nutcrackers which were evidently 

 migrating, and though their migration may not have extended 

 beyond the Altai Mountains, yet from the great abundance of 

 edible seed of Pinus cembra, which were just becoming ripe, I 

 could not see any reason to account for this. In Europe the 

 Nutcracker is a solit^iry and not a migratory bird, and yet the 

 regular occurrence of Asiatic Nutcraciiers in Eastern Europo 



