IN NORTH-EAST RUSSIA. 343 



On the 20th the Willow-Warbler was first heard, nearly two months 

 later than it usually appears in the south of England. 



On the 21st we added the Wheatear and the Crane to our list. If the 

 Wheatear had been a rare bird in this district we might have concluded that 

 we had hitherto overlooked it ; but after this date it became comparatively 

 common ; so that we were obliged to conclude that this season, at least, it 

 arrived after the Redstart and Willow-Warbler : the Wheatear generally 

 appears upon the moors in the neighbourhood of Sheffield at least a fortnight 

 earlier than either the Willow-Warbler or the Redstart is heard in our 

 woods. We saw another pair of Cranes on the 25th, but did not meet with 

 them again. 



The 22nd was one of our red-letter days ; for at that date we shot 

 our first Siberian Chiffchafl" (Phylloscopus tristis), hitherto known principally 

 as a winter visitor to India. This bird afterwards became a great favourite 

 with us ; and many are the times that we have turned out of our hammocks 

 at four in the morning to listen to its merry chi-vit', chi-vet', from the top of 

 a larch or spruce. We afterwards found it still commoner on the willow- 

 swamps of the islands of the delta. On this day we also added three other 

 species to our list — the Sky-Lark, the Tree-Pipit, and the Stonechat. The 

 two former birds were very rare ; but the Stonechat soon became common. 

 All the specimens of the latter which we obtained were the Asiatic form, 

 with pure white upper tail-coverts. On the other hand, birds which I shot 

 two years ago in the Parnassus were of the usual European type, with black 

 spots on the rump. 



On the 23rd we shot our first Short-eared Owl and the first Blue- 

 throated Warblers. 



On the 24th the Brambling and the Pine-Grosbeak arrived. 



On the 25th the Lapland Buntings and the Shore-Larks had con- 

 siderably lessened in numbers, whilst Motacilla viricUs had become much 

 more plentiful than Motacilla alba. 



On the 26th, although the ice was still marching down the river, 



2 L 



