356 



2 



Nestling. I have not been able to examine a specimen in nestling-plumage; but Von Middendorff figures 

 it in this plumage as spotted, not very unlike the young of Cyanecula suecica, but easily recognizable 

 by its blue tail. 



This richly coloured Asiatic bird is found throughout Asia as far east as China and Japan, 

 ranging southward into India and westward to the Ural, where it just penetrates into the 

 Western Palsearctic llegion. Mr. Seebohm informs me that he has seen specimens from the 

 Ural range; and Mr. Sabanaeff writes (Pozvonotsch. sred. Ural, p. 93): — "This species seems 

 to belong almost exclusively to the avifauna of the district of Verhotiersk, as it appears very 

 doubtful if it really breeds in the Kaslinsky Ural, where it probably occurs only on passage ; and, 

 judging from the localities it visits in the Perm Ural, it is probably more numerous on the south- 

 western slopes of the Ural range. Its breeding-range commences in the vicinity of Tagil, where I 

 often met with it in July 1868 ; and it is most numerous in the old fir-forests in the Pavdinskaya 

 Dacha, where it is the commonest of any of the Warblers. 



" This bird is the representative species of the boreal fir-forests ; and it and the Tree-Pipit 

 are the principal inhabitants of these localities, occurring even in the wildest portions, far away 

 from any pond or river, where their song breaks the otherwise almost total silence of these dense 

 woods. Nemura ci/anura, however, occurs also in young fir-plantations, but only near where 

 there are lofty trees. In August, after the young are hatched, they frequent, almost exclusively, 

 the bushes skirting the small streams. In the Ural proper they are scarcely more numerous, as 

 they are only found at the foot of the mountains and never at any great altitude, only frequenting 

 conifer-regions. I am convinced that this species occurs also in the Solikamsk district, and must 

 therefore be included in the avifauna of North-east Itussia in Europe. In the BogoslofTskaya 

 Dacha, where the conifer-growth is scant, this bird is rarer ; but I met with it very generally 

 round about BogoslofTsk, near the Caspian, and especially near the Vagran where it joins the 

 Sosva." 



It does not appear to have been met with in Turkestan, nor do I find it recorded from 

 Persia or Baluchistan; but Dr. Jerdon says (B. of India, ii. p. 147), "it is found throughout 

 the Himalayas from the north-west to Sikkim. It is only a winter resident in Sikkim, how- 

 ever, and, I suspect, throughout the hills also. It is said to be common in China, Central and 

 Northern Asia, and in Japan. It is very numerous about Darjeeling in the cold weather, 

 from 4000 feet upwards. It keeps to the forests, perches low on small trees and brushwood, 

 and descends to the ground to feed on insects of various kinds. It is not unfrequently seen 

 feeding on the bridle-paths and roads." In Siberia it is found from the extreme west right 

 across the continent of Asia to Japan. Von Middendorff says that he saw it at Udskoj-Ostrog on 

 the 19th April (O. S.), and that it breeds there commonly. On the 2nd July the young were 

 fledged; and on the 13th of September the last were seen passing southward. He also shot 

 specimens on the western slope of the Stanowoi Mountains early in May. Von Schrenck writes 

 (Vog. des Amurl. p. 362) that " this bird, which ranges from the Jennesei to the coasts of the 

 Sea of Ochotsk and the Japanese islands, and from Nepal to the Lower Tunguska, is common in 

 the Amur country, and there, as well as in Dauria, is one of the earliest of the Warblers to 

 arrive and latest to leave. In the spring of 1855 it was observed near the Mariinskischen Post 



