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and the valley of the Alma, but in other districts he did not notice it. He expressly mentions 

 that all specimens obtained in the Crimea are referable to the present species. It occurs during 

 migration in Turkey ; and Canon Tristram, in his notes on the ornithology of Palestine (P. Z. S. 

 1864, p. 440), states that it was obtained by Messrs. Shepherd and Upcher near Jaffa in winter. 

 Mr. C. W. Wyatt records it (Ibis, 1870, p. 6) from the Sinaitic peninsula, and says that it occurs 

 at Wady Feiran, but is not common. North-east Africa appears to be its head quarters during 

 winter ; and Captain Shelley (B. of Eg. p. 85) writes that it " is an extremely abundant species 

 in some parts of the Delta, and is very generally distributed throughout Egypt and Nubia, 

 especially in the damper localities, or where the vegetation grows to the height of several feet. 

 Although it frequents reedy marshes and mustard-fields, or wherever the vegetation is luxuriant, 

 it rarely alights upon the plants, but almost invariably keeps to the ground, where it runs with 

 tail upraised, stopping every now and then to pick up an insect or to watch the intruder from 

 the edge of its retreat." Von Heuglin also says (Om. N.O.-Afr. p. 336) that it arrives in small 

 flocks in September, and wanders southwards to Senaar and Abyssinia. He also met with it in 

 Northern Arabia and on the borders of the Red Sea. It frequents hedges, gardens, arundo 

 thickets and ditches, and is found in the desert under tamarisks and in the desert-grass ; on the 

 coast it is met with amongst the soda-plants and on the open places. I may here remark that 

 the notes on the Bluethroat in North-eastern Africa refer to the present as well as to the 

 white-spotted species, both being found there, but in the western portion of Northern Africa the 

 latter alone occurs. 



To the eastward the present species is met with as far as Eastern Siberia and China ; and, 

 excepting in a few isolated cases, the white-spotted bird has not been observed to the eastward 

 of Europe proper. Dr. G. Henderson met with it in Yarkand, and states that it "was only 

 obtained at the ' Khush Maidan,' or Happy Plain (so called on the lucus a non lucendo principle, 

 it being one of the most miserable deserts in creation), at an elevation of 16,000 feet, — at 

 Shahidulla, at about 11,000 feet— and at Sanjan, about 6000 feet, where, by the way, one quite 

 young bird was obtained, proving that this species also breeds in Yarkand. In each case the 

 specimens were obtained in the immediate neighbourhood of running water. They differ in no 

 way from specimens procured in various parts of the plains of India during the cold season. Of 

 course to the plains it is merely a Avinter visitant ; and heretofore its breeding-domicile has been 

 unknown, its nest never having been met with in the Himalayas, so far as they are open to 

 European travellers." Herr von Pelzeln, in his notes on the ornithology of Thibet and the 

 Himalayas (Ibis, 1868, p. 311) records it from Sirinagur, Saleskote, Zangra, and Kargil; and 

 Mr. A. O. Hume says (Stray Feathers, p. 190) that "it occurred but sparingly and only in the 

 better-cultivated portions of Sindh. Larkhana and Mehur were the only places where I noticed 

 several pairs on the same day. All these birds are analogous to what I take to be the true 

 suecica, having red throat-patches ; the leucocyana type, with the white satin throat-patch, is of 

 very rare occurrence, and I have only succeeded as yet in procuring two in India." Dr. Jerdon 

 (B. of Ind. ii. p. 153) says that C. suecica is found all over India in suitable localities, and is 

 migratory, leaving for the north in March and April. Dr. A. Leith Adams records it (P. Z. S. 

 1858, p. 492) from the Punjab, it being common round Peshawur ; Captain Beavan obtained it at 

 Barrackpore and Umballah, Major Irby in Oudh and Kumaon ; and Mr. Blanford (Journ. As. Soc. 



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