CALLIOPE CAMTSCHATKENSIS 



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Siberian Rubv-throat. 



Motacilla calliope, Pallas, Reise Russ. Reichs, iii. p. 697.— Id. Zoogr. Rosso-As. i. p. 483. 



Kamtschatka Thrush, Latham, Gen. Synopsis, ii. p. 28.— Id. torn. cit. Suppl. p. 140, pi. frontisp. 



Turdus camtschatkensis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 817. 



Turdus calliope, Latham, Index Orn. i. p. 331. 



Accentor calliope, Temminck, Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 172. 



Calliope lathami, Gould, B. Europe, ii. p. 144.— Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. & N. Amer. p. 15. 



Lusciola (Melodes) calliope, Keys. & Blasius, Wirbelth. Europa's, p. lviii. 



Calliope camtschatkensis, Strickland, Ann. Nat. Hist. vi. (1841) p. 422. — Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. As. Soc. Beng. 

 p. 169.— Bonap. Conspectus Gen, Av. i. p. 295.— Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. East-India Co. i. 

 p. 313. — Jaub. & Barth.-Lapomm. Rich. Orn. p. 236. — Jerdon, Birds of India, ii. p. 150. — Degl. & 

 Gerbe, Orn. Europe, i. p. 464. — Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 359. — Dresser, Birds of Europe, pt. 46.— 

 Taczanowski, Bulletin Soc. Zool. France, i. p. 143. — Prjev. Birds of Mongolia, in Rowley's Orn. Misc. 

 ii. p. 180.— David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 235.— Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 239.— 

 Seebohm, Ibis, 1879, p. 7. 



Cyanecula calliope, Gray, Genera of Birds, i. p. 182. — Id. Hand-list of Birds, i. p. 224. 



Erithacus calliope, Degland, Orn. Eur. i. p. 154. 



Sylvia (Calliope) kamtschatkensis, Middend. Sibir. Reise, p. 174, Taf. 15. fig. 2. 



Calliope kamtschacensis, Hartl. J. f. Orn. 1859, p. 50. 



Lusciola (Calliope} kamtschatkensis, Schrenck, Reisen Amurlande, p. 359.— Radde, Reisen Sibir, p. 248. 



Calliope yeatmani, Tristram, Ibis, 1870, p. 444.— Brooks, Stray Feathers, 1879, p. 475. 





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It is not my purpose in the present article to give an exhaustive account of this well-known bird, which has 

 been so recently treated of by Mr. Dresser and other authors. My object in figuring it has been to place side 

 by side with the figures of the other known species of Calliope better figures than it has before been in 

 my power to produce, as the species has, until recently, been rarely procured in full breeding-plumage. 

 My friend Mr, Seebohm has very kindly placed at my disposal the beautiful specimens procured by 

 him during his recent expedition to Siberia. He writes : — " I only met with this very handsome bird once 

 within the Arctic circle. This was on the 14th of June, whilst the ice was still straggling down the river. 

 Early in the morning, before breakfast, Blue-throats were singing lustily. One bird struck me as having a 

 wonderfully fine song, richer and more melodious than that of the Blue-throat, arid scarcely inferior to that 

 of a Nightingale. I shot him to be quite sure he was only a Blue-throat, and was astonished to pick up a 

 fine male Ruby-throated Warbler. I did not meet with this bird again until I reached Yen-e-saisk', on my 

 return journey. It was then the 16th of August, and I was exploring the reedy swamps near the river. 

 My attention was attracted to a bird hidden among the Varices, which was uttering a very loud harsh 

 cry like tic, tic, tic. After waiting some time I got a shot at it in a tall bunch of rushes. I felt 

 quite sure that the bird was a large Acrocephalus, and was astonished to find a second male Ruby- 

 throat." 



The range of the present species may be briefly stated to be from the Ural Mountains in Europe, across 

 Siberia, to Japan, migrating through China, in winter, and extending at the same season of the year into 

 Central India. It has twice occurred in France ; so that it may be looked upon as an occasional straggler 

 to Western Europe ; and its range in a south-easterly direction is said to extend even to the Philippine 

 Islands. An account of its habits is given in Mr. Dresser's * Birds of Europe,' from the writings of Dybowski, 

 which I here transcribe: — "In Dauria this is a common bird, arriving late in May. Throughout June its 

 soft, quiet, somewhat unvaried song is heard ; and it is one of the pleasantest of our songsters. So soon 

 as the sun has left the horizon this bird begins to sing,— first one or two commencing ; and gradually more 

 join in, until in the dusk of the evening all the males are in full song; and I have often heard from three 

 to five singing close to our tent. They sing more or less, according to the weather ; for during rain they 

 seldom sing, being only heard now and again. During the daytime they frequent the thickets. The present 

 species inhabits the wooded plains near rivers and streams, and is met with as far as the boundary of tree- 

 growth, thus at a much greater altitude than Larmwra cyane. It nests on the ground in out-of-the-way 

 places, either in heaps of boughs swept together by the floods, or else in bush thickets or dense grass, or 



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