SWEDISH BLUE-THROATED WARBLER. 
11 
by M. Verreaux, five inches and a half; from carpus to tip three 
inches; tarsus thirteen lines; tail two inches; beak, the lower 
mandible six tenths, and the upper eleven twentieths of an inch. 
The bird figured by Mr. Yarrell as Phcenicvra 
suecica is the S. cyanecula of Brisson, Meyer, and 
Scliinz, and the variety B. suecica of Gmelin and 
Latham. The real Motacilla suecica of Linmeus is, 
according to Degland, the bird which I have figured, 
and which in a dozen skins sent me by M. J. Verreaux, 
has the red mark in the centre of the blue more or 
less developed. It is most probably one of two varieties, 
and it is very difficult to decide to which of the two 
the typical form can be referred. 
Yarrell says that the white spot of Phcenicura cyan- 
ecula, the bird which he has described and figured as 
the original Motacilla suecica of Linnseus, is sometimes 
seen in very old males red. M. Temminck also describes 
the red-spotted variety as a permanent race, only oc- 
curring in Russia and Siberia. Degland, on the con- 
trary, says that the Russian specimens have the white 
spot as well as the red one, and some have the spot 
partly red and partly white, as though the two races 
had crossed; and the same has been remarked by Mr. 
Hardy of specimens sent to him from the Nile. 
Professor Allman has received during the present year 
a series of S. ccerulecula, sent to him for the Museum 
of Edinburgh, from Heligoland, by Mr. H. Gatke. They 
are adult male and female, and three young ones. In 
one of the latter there is a clear white spot, with a 
tinge of red appearing round it. The occurrence of 
this variety in Heligoland, Norway, and Sweden gen- 
erally, strengthens Degland’s opinion that it is the 
genuine Motacilla suecica of Linmeus. It breeds regu- 
