RED-THROATED PIPIT. , 231 



stage of migration^ and probably continued their journey northwards 

 the same night. In twelve days^ although we had seen plenty of birds^ 

 we were only able to secure five males and one female. On this occasion 

 we bagged ten males and one female in a couple of hours. Occa- 

 sionally we heard them singing on the ground. When disturbed, after 

 repeated shots they settled, some on the railings, some on the house- 

 roofs, and some in a willow tree. "We saw nothing more of this bird at 

 Ust Zylma nor for a hundred and fifty miles down the great river. When 

 we reached the tundra the Red-throated Pipit was again common and 

 busily engaged in breeding. We found plenty of their nests. The com- 

 monest bird on the tundra was the Lapland Bunting, and the next 

 commonest the Red-throated Pipit. The nests of both these species were 

 placed in recesses on the sides of the tussocky ridges which intersected the 

 bogs. The eggs of the latter bird varied from the reddish variety of the 

 eggs of the Tree-Pipit to those of the Lapland Bunting ; but the nests 

 were always easily to be distinguished from those of the last-mentioned bird, 

 being lined with fine dry grass instead of a profusion of feathers. The 

 Red-throated Pipit was very fond of perching in the willow bushes in 

 the sheltered hollows of the tundra and on the islands of the delta. 



I found the Red-throated Pipit equally common in the valley of the 

 Yenesay. It arrived on the Arctic circle on the 6th of June, in the second 

 half of the great spring migration in this district, a month after the Swans 

 and the Geese, about the same time as the Plovers and Sandpipers, but a 

 week or more earlier than the Sedge- Warbler, the Arctic Bluethroat, and 

 the Petchora Pipit. 



The nest of the Red-throated Pipit is entirely made of dry grass, the 

 coarser pieces being used for the foundation and the finest reserved for 

 the lining. The eggs of the Red-throated Pipit are from four to six 

 in number ; they bear a general resemblance to those of the Tree-Pipit, 

 and, like the eggs of that bird, may be divided into two types. One of 

 these, like its representative in the Tree-Pipit's eggs, is very similar to 

 the eggs of the Meadow-Pipit, but the markings are seldom so profusely 

 distributed over the whole surface of the egg ; the other type, in which 

 the spots are darker and much more distinct, and partake frequently of 

 the streaky character of a Bunting's egg, resembles more the eggs of the 

 Lapland Bunting than the other type of the eggs of the Tree-Pipit. The 

 ground-colour in both types varies from buflSsh or pinkish white to very 

 pale greenish blue, and the surface-markings vary from neutral brown 

 to reddish brown ; the underlying markings vary from pale brown to pale 

 grey. On one type the spots are large and confluent, but sufficiently wide 

 apart to show a considerable amount of the ground-colour between them ; 

 but on the other the spots are small, and so thickly dispersed over the 

 entire surface as almost to conceal the ground-colour. On some eggs 



