URAGUS SIBIRICUS. 



Siberian Grosbeak. 



Loxia sibirica, Pallas, Reis. Russischen Reichs, Theil ii. Anhang, p. 711, no. 24 (1773). 



Siberian Grosbeak, Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, ii. pt. i. p. 124 (1783). 



Pyrrhula caudata, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. ii. p. 10, pi. 37 (1811). 



Pyrrkula longicauda, Temm. Man. d'Orn. i. p. 340 (1820). 



Con/thus longicauda, Gould, B. of Europe, iii. p. 205 (1837). 



Cory thus sibiricus, Bp. Comp. List Birds Eur. & N. Amer. p. 38 (1838). 



Uragus sibirica, Keys. & Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. xl. (1840). 



Uragus sibiricus, Gray, Gen. of Birds, ii. p. 387 (1844).-Bonap. & Schlegel, Mon. des Loxiens, p. 3o, pis. 34, 

 35 (1850).— Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 529 (1850).— Gray, Handl. B. ii. p. 102, no. 7529 (1870).— 

 Swinh. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 387— Severtzow, Turkest. Jevotn. p. 64 (1873).— Dresser, Ibis, 1875, 

 p. 245.— Taczan. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, i. p. 182 (1876) —David & Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 357 (1877).— 

 Prjev. in Dawson Rowley's Orn. Misc. ii. p. 304 (1877).— Seebohm, Ibis, 1880, p. 187. 



Erythrothoraw caudatus, Brehm, Naumannia, 1855, p. 276, note. 



Pyrrhula {Uragus) sibirica, Schrenck, Reisen im Amur-Lande, p. 290 (1859).— Radde, Reisen Sibirien, p. 181 

 (1863). 



The Siberian Grosbeak was for a long time considered a European bird, and was figured by me forty 

 years ago in my ' Birds of Europe.' The authority for this appears to have been the late Mr. Temminck, 

 who, in his 'Manuel,' gave it as a migrant to Southern Russia, and said that it passed into Hungary. 

 There can be no doubt, however, that this statement is entirely erroneous ; and in all recent works on 

 European ornithology the species has been very properly omitted from the list. 



Pallas, the discoverer of the species, found it abundant in the poplar-woods shading the banks of the 

 torrents on the Altai, and in the whole of Eastern Siberia. In winter it wanders about in small bands in 

 the tufty bushes. It feeds on seeds of every kind of plant, principally those of Artemisia integrifolia, 

 the cinquefoils, and Composite, in which the flora of Siberia is so rich. Its note is like that of the common 

 Linnet. Mr. Seebohm has received specimens from the neighbourhood of Kras-no-yarsk ; and he savs 

 that Dr. Theel obtained it at Yen-e-saisk. It is also said by Dr. Severtzow to be a winter visitant to 

 Turkestan, in which district it breeds. Dr. Radde procured the Siberian Grosbeak in most places where 

 he collected in Eastern Siberia ; and it is very common there, according to Dr. Dybowski. Radde would 

 unite with the present bird the Japanese Uragus sanguinolentus, which Prjevalski found resident in Manchuria, 

 along with U. sibiricus ; and it is certain that the Japanese bird is also found on the coast of Siberia, 

 as Mr. Janskowski has procured it on the island of Askold ; but it is not certain whether U. sanguinolentus 

 migrates into China, as is the case with U. sibiricus. Abbe David states that he has seen the present 

 species many times in winter in the neighbourhood of Pekin, where he killed a fine female on the 11th of 

 April, from which it would appear that some individuals remained after the departure of the cold season. 

 Colonel Prjevalski, in his notes on the Birds of Mongolia, observes that this species came under his 

 observation only in the Guchin-gurb hills, north of Dolan-nor, late in March and early in April, in pairs 

 and small flocks, in the bushes overgrown with weeds and long grass. 



The following is a translation of the descriptions given by Bonaparte and Schlegel in their Monograph : 



"Adult male. Forehead and lores dark carmine red ; upper surface of the head, cheeks, and throat of a 

 lustrous whitish rose-colour, more or less washed with greyish on the top of the head ; feathers of the 

 mantle and scapulars of a greyish colour more or less washed with carmine rose, and having in the centre 

 of each a longitudinal streak more or less dark, or even blackish. Rump, lesser wing-coverts, breast, and 

 belly rose-coloured more or less tinged with carmine. Quills black, with a white edging ; the inner 

 secondaries with very broad white edges. Greater and median wing-coverts for the most part pure white, 

 but black towards their base. The three central lines of tail-feathers black, the three outer pairs white, with 

 black shafts, and having their inner webs bordered with black, which is broad on the fourth pair, but hardly 

 perceptible on the outer pair ; lower wing-coverts of the male white, washed with rose-colour on the smaller 

 coverts ; the red tints of the males often show very perceptible shades in different individuals, so that, while 

 some are decidedly pale, others have this colour more or less brilliant. According to Pallas these are the 

 examples from Dauria, which have much less brilliant colours than those which inhabit the banks of the 

 Yen-e-say, while those from the Altai are recognized by their dull coloration. 



"The female is distinguished from the male by the ground-colour of its plumage, which is of a yellowish 

 grey, clearer above, and inclining to white on the hinder parts of the body. Pallas states that these colours 

 show sometimes slightly pronounced shades of red." 



The figures in the Plate represent two males and a female, of about the natural size, and are drawn from 

 specimens in my own collection. 



[R. B. S.] 



fe&fr 



KHQ 



