542 



Young (Tjubuk, S.E. Ural, 23rd July). Resembles the adult, but has the plumage more rufous, the margins 

 to the wing-feathers are broader and more rufous, and the undcrparts are washed with pale rufous 

 buff, except that the chin is white. In this, as well as a still younger individual received from 

 Mr. Sabanaeff, I observe that the first primary is proportionally larger than in any of the adult 

 birds. 



Obs. Although this bird was called caligata, under the impression that the tarsus was covered with only 

 one scale, this is not the case, though in very old examples the scutella covering the tarsus are grown 

 together, so that the divisions are not easily visible ; and hence, doubtless, the mistake has arisen. 



This small Warbler is one which for long has been but little known, and has therefore been 

 referred by various authors to very different genera. Later investigations, however, have clearly 

 shown that it does not belong to any of the groups in which it has hitherto been usually placed, 

 but is a true Hypolais, closely allied to the Indian species known as Hypolais rama, and more 

 distantly related to II. pallida, Ehr. (//. elaica auctt). In Europe proper it is a rare species, 

 being only met with in the extreme east, except that it has once been recorded (J. f. O. 1856, 

 p. 71) by Giitke as having been met with on Heligoland. It has not been recorded from any- 

 where else west of Russia, where it appears to be not uncommon in some localities. Mr. Meves 

 says (Ofv. K. Vet. Ak. Forh. 1871, p. 754) that when travelling in Northern Russia, about seven 

 versts from the post station Tichmanskoi, near the Latscha lake, on the 4th July, he heard a 

 powerful, sweet song, quite unknown to him, uttered by a small Warbler, which flew whilst 

 singing from bush to bush on a small marshy place overgrown with willow bushes. He was 

 able to observe it quite close, and shot it, but lost it in the dense grass. When in St. Peters- 

 burg he saw specimens of the present species, and states that he is sure that the bird he saw 

 was really II caligata. He describes the song as something like that of Hypolais icterina, but 

 also resembling that of the Sedge-Warbler. Eversmann, who met with this species in the 

 Southern Ural, and who obtained the specimen from which the original description by Lichten- 

 stein was taken, says that he only met with it in that locality, and that it is not particularly 

 numerous, being very shy and but seldom seen. It frequents, he says, places overgrown with 

 low bushes. I possess also specimens from the Ural, collected by Mr. Meves and Mr. Sabanaeff, 

 and am informed by the latter gentleman that he met with it throughout the Ural, especially in 

 the northern portion of the country he explored, but he did not met with it on the banks of the 

 rivers which flow through the black-earth plains. Its range appears to extend southward, or 

 rather south-eastward, "from here, as it does not occur in Persia, where, Mr. Blanford remarks, 

 Hypolais rama (the large-billed bird) alone occurs. It is, however, found in Turkestan, whence 

 I have specimens collected by Severtzoff on the Syr-Darja, which agree precisely with examples 

 from the Ural, and from the Kirghis steppes to the north-east of the Caspian, from which latter 

 locality I have the bird, egg, and nest. Severtzoff writes (Turk. Jevotnie, p. 66) that it breeds, 

 but is rare, in the north-western portion of Turkestan (comprising Karatau, the western Thian- 

 shan mountains, the upper portions of the rivers Aris, Keless, Chirchick, and their tributaries, 

 the lower Syr-Darja, from the sources of the Aris to Lake Aral, and the delta of the Syr- 

 Daija). and also in the south-western (comprising the Chodjent district, the entire Zarevshan 

 valley, the Syr-Darja river, and the steppes between that river and the Kisil-cum). It is, he 



