198 SCARLET GROSBEAK. 
Northern Siberia to Kamchatka ; further south, in the elevated regions 
of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Turkestan, the Himalayas, and Central 
Asia to Northern China. In winter it is very common throughout 
the greater portion of the Indian region. It is rather late in return- 
ing to its northern breeding-quarters in Europe, and near Warsaw it 
does not arrive until about the middle of May; but in the drier 
climate of Siberia it is earlier. It leaves towards the end of August 
or early in September. 
The nest, which is rather deep, and slenderly constructed of dry 
grass-stalks with a lining of horsehair, is placed in the fork of a small 
bush, generally in the neighbourhood of water. The eggs, usually 
5 in number, are laid about the middle of June, and of a deeper 
greenish-blue than those of the Bullfinch, sparsely marked with 
reddish-brown and almost black spots: measurements °75 by °57 in. 
The food consists of seeds, grain and berries, and Col. E. A. Butler 
says that the bird is partial to the watery nectar in the flower of the 
Indian coral-tree, while Jerdon observed it eating bamboo-seeds ; the 
young are probably fed on insects. The song, generally uttered 
from the top of a bush or low tree, is a loud clear whistle, /u-zw%i7, 
tu-tu-t, several times repeated in rapid succession, whence the Hindoo 
name ‘ Tuti.’ 
The adult male has the top of the head glossy carmine-red ; 
mantle warm brown with a reddish tinge ; quills and tail dark brown, 
with paler buffish margins ; ramp and upper tail-coverts carmine-red ; 
chin and throat rich rose-red ; breast rose-pink, fading to brownish 
on the flanks ; bill yellowish-brown ; legs reddish-brown. Length 
5°5 in.; wing 3°25 in. The female has no red tints, the general 
colour of the upper parts being dull striated olive-brown, but the wing- 
coverts and inner secondaries are much more conspicuously edged 
with dirty white than in the male; the lower parts are dull white 
with a buffish tinge on the throat and breast, and numerous hair- 
brown streaks from the latter to the flanks ; a brown stripe descends 
from either corner of the lower mandible. The young are at 
first rather greyer in tint than the female, but cock birds soon begin 
to show a distinctly yellowish tinge on the ear-coverts, rump, and the 
outer margins of the quills and tail-feathers. It seems probable that 
the rosy hue is not assumed until after the second moult. 
This species has been separated by some modern authors from 
Pyrrhula, under the generic name Carfodacus of Kaup; the dis- 
tinctions consisting mainly in the shape of the bill and in the smaller 
amount of covering to the nostrils. 
