478 



unable to say. In the winter season it migrates southward, and is then met with throughout India. 

 Dr. Severtzoff states (Turk. Jevotnie, p. 126) that it is " only a migrant in Turkestan, as also on 

 the Lower and Central Ural and the Kirghis steppes, and has been sent to the Moscow Museum 

 from Irkutsk." Dr. Henderson says (Lahore to Yarkand, p. 219) that he obtained numerous 

 specimens, one of them a nestling, at Ladak in July; and Mr. A. O. Hume adds the following 

 note : — " In this latter country, at least, some of the birds which throng our Indian groves during 

 the cold season doubtless breed. Other specimens, one of them also immature, were procured early 

 in August in the Karakash valley ; and here also this species probably nests. This bird, therefore, 

 like so many other apparently feeble-winged species, is found on both sides of the vast irregular 

 Karakoram mountain-series, a chain 140 miles in width, and the lowest points of which are 

 13,000 feet above the sea-level. The passes are nearly 19,000 feet; and to this latter height the 

 birds must ascend if they do, as seems probable, cross from Le to Yarkand." In India it is a 

 common winter visitant. Mr. Blanford states that he did not meet with it in Persia, but it was 

 common throughout Baluchistan ; and Mr. A. O. Hume speaks of it as being common enough 

 in the cabul trees on the banks of all the larger rivers of Sindh, but comparatively scarce inland. 

 Dr. Jerdon says (B. of India, ii. p. 190) that it "appears generally spread throughout India 

 during the cold weather. Blyth says that it is abundant in Lower Bengal in swampy places 

 with bushes, or occasionally in groves of trees. I have seen it perched among some reeds on 

 the banks of a stream, now and then alighting on a stone in the water, and making short sallies 

 after insects in the air, or seizing one in the sand of the rivulet." Blyth says that he also found 

 it abundant in a mango tope near Hooghly, where there was no marshy ground in the immediate 

 vicinity. Mr. V. Ball (Stray Feathers, ii. p. 414) says that it occurs, but is not common, in 

 Chota Nagpur, and has been obtained at Manbhum, Singhbhum, and Lohardugga. It is also 

 said to occur as far east as Thibet. 



Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown have been fortunate enough not only to discover, as above 

 stated, the present species in the extreme north of European Russia, but to procure its nest and 

 eggs. Mr. Seebohm has kindly furnished me with the following notes on its habits and nidifica- 

 tion as observed by him and Mr. Harvie-Brown : — " In a country where winter freezes up almost 

 all insect life for nearly eight months of the year, as it does in the valley of the Lower Petchora, 

 the breeding-time of the soft-billed birds of passage is very limited, and they consequently arrive 

 pretty nearly en masse. At Ust Zylma we noted the arrival of fifteen insectivorous birds, nearly 

 the last of which was the Siberian Chiffchaff ; but as they all arrived during the eleven days from 

 the 12th to the 23rd of May, too much importance must not be attached to the order of migra- 

 tion. This is more especially the case with very local and comparatively rare birds like this 

 species, which might easily escape detection for some days after their arrival. The exact date 

 at which migratory birds reach their breeding-grounds in the Arctic regions will doubtless 

 depend upon wind and weather to a greater degree than in more southerly latitudes. 



"In the year 1875, when my friend Mr. Harvie-Brown and I made our trip to Siberia in 

 Europe, the spring was sudden and short. Up to the 8th May the weather can be described as 

 nothing but winter, hard frost, or an occasional snow-storm. The 9th and two following days 

 were hot; the snow melted rapidly in the sun; but it froze hard at night. During these three 

 days many new species of migratory birds arrived. On the 12th the first thin-billed birds of 



