i66 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIV. 



I afterwards discovered that the bird was not new, but had 

 been described some years before from examples obtained on 

 the coast of China. I had subsequently the pleasure of 

 working out its geographical distribution, as the reader who 

 cares to peruse the accompanying foot-note may learn. The 

 houour of having added a new bird to the European list still 

 remains to us, and is one of the discoveries made upon our 

 journey on which we pride ourselves. 



In the evening we reached Viski, a small town with a 

 church built upon a flat piece of pasture land. It was the 

 first village containing more than half-a-dozen houses, and 

 the first church, that we had seen since leaving Ust-Zylma. 

 It is reputed to be the residence of several rich peasants, one 

 of whom is the owner of 10,000 reindeer, valued at a 

 sovereign each. Without exception it is the dirtiest place 

 I have ever been in. The peasants keep cows, but as 

 they have no arable ground the manure is valueless, and is 



Batchian. In 1871 Swinhoe announced 

 the identity of Gray's birds with the 

 species which he had previously de- 

 scribed from South China. Three years 

 later he rediscovered the species in 

 North China on migration, and also 

 obtained a skin from Lake Baikal. The 

 year after our visit to the Petchora, 

 Drs. Finsch and Brehm found it in the 

 valley of the Obb, a little to the north 

 of the Arctic Circle, and I afterwards 

 found skins in the British Museum from 

 Borneo and Negros, and also obtained 

 information that it had been procured 

 in winter at Manilla and Celebes, In 

 1877 I found it breeding in considerable 



numbers in the valley of the Yenesay 

 in latitude 702*^, and on my journey 

 home I identified skins in the Museum 

 at St. Petersburg, collected by Baron 

 Maydell in the Tschuski Land, north of 

 Kamtschatka, and on Baring Island to 

 the east of that peninsula, collected by 

 Wossnessensky. We may therefore 

 conclude that the Siberian pipit bi'eeds 

 on the tundras beyond the limit of 

 forest growth, from the valley of the 

 Petchora eastwards to Behring's Straits, 

 that it passes through South-Eastern 

 Siberia and East China on migration, 

 and winters in the islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago. 



