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whether the constant habit of looking for birds in trees deceives the ear; but I was certainly a 
quarter of an hour before I discovered that the bird was singing high in the air like a Lark. 
Whilst it was singing the wings and tail were expanded, and vibrating with the efforts of the 
bird to pour out its song. As soon as the song ceased the bird flew a short distance and com- 
menced hovering and singing again. This continued sometimes for an hour, the bird gradually 
wheeling round and round, and scarcely changing its position. The song consisted of two parts. 
The first part, during which the bird appeared to be pouring ow? its song, was a Lark-like ¢rilla, 
very similar to the tri//a of Temminck’s Stint, or the final note in our Wood-Warbler’s song. 
The second part of the song was a low guttural warble, such as the Bluethroat sometimes makes, 
and sounded like the effort of the bird to trilla whilst it was zxhaling breath. After watching 
the bird for nearly an hour, and thinking that it would never get tired of singing and come 
within range, I saw it descend and perch in a willow tree. I listened to it continuing its song 
for some short time in the tree, and then saw it alight.on a piece of very swampy ground, 
and begin to run about, sometimes almost, if not quite, up to its breast in water, apparently 
searching for insects. In this position I shot it. About six o’clock I met Harvie-Brown, showed 
him my ‘rara avis,’ and we both returned to the marsh, in order that he might make the 
acquaintance of the bird and learn its song. It was not long before we heard the curious note 
and caught sight of the bird. We both watched it for some time; it finally alighted on the 
ground and continued its song there for some short time, when Harvie-Brown shot it. The two 
birds were exactly alike, both males, most like the Tree-Pipit, but a trifle larger, more richly 
spotted on the back, and with a long hind claw like the Meadow-Pipit. We christened the 
bird provisionally the Singing Pipit, and kept a careful look-out for it wherever we stopped. 
“A couple of days later found us at Goradok, for some inscrutable reason called Pustazursk 
in the maps. Here Harvie-Brown and I spent the whole night on the tundra, shooting. Our 
advance northwards again added fresh birds to our list. Great Snipe, Shore-Larks, and Red- 
throated Pipits were breeding. We had hitherto seen them only on migration. Motacilla 
viridis had entirely disappeared, and I. citreola had become very common. We spent some time 
stalking Willow-Grouse as they roosted on some conspicuous branch of a birch, shot some Ruffs, 
a Golden Plover, and some Red-necked Phalaropes, and towards morning found ourselves on a 
piece of swampy ground over which several of our new Pipits were singing persistently. We 
each took a bird in hand; and after patiently watching for an hour or more we each got a shot, 
mine on a tree and Brown’s in the air. As before, the birds proved to be both males. Their 
habits were exactly the same as those we previously watched. The long hind claw is generally 
understood as marking a ground-perching bird; and so this bird must doubtless be considered. 
It breeds upon the ground, and probably seeks its food in swamps. It is ultra-aquatic in its 
habits, and we never met with it away from a swamp. ‘The fact that in the Petchora this bird 
perches freely in trees may be somewhat of a local habit. We constantly saw birds perching in 
trees in this district which we are accustomed to consider as almost exclusively ground-birds. 
The Red-throated Pipit we more frequently shot from a tree than on the ground. On the only 
two occasions on which we met with the Meadow-Pipit breeding it was seen by Harvie-Brown to 
perch in trees. During migration the latter bird perched so often in trees that I am not quite 
sure that the birds we shot out of trees are not last year’s A. cervinus which have not yet assumed 
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