618 



about 4 - 5-5 inches, culmen 0'5, gape 0"55, wing 2 - 2, tail T83, tarsus 0'7; first primary scarcely longer 

 than the primary coverts, second rather longer than the fourth, third longest, being, however, only 005 

 inch longer than the second. 



■"b 1 



Adult Female (Lake Baikal, 16th June) . Resembles the male, but has the throat rather less striped, and is 

 smaller in size, measuring — wing 2"0, tail 1'7, tarsus - 7. 



Obs. A specimen from China, sent to me by Mr. Swinhoe, is apparently in winter dress, and has the edges 

 to the feathers on the upper parts much broader, and the underparts are much less striped, than in the 

 specimens above described. 



Foe long there existed some doubt respecting the propriety of including the present species in 

 the European list, and many naturalists have gone so far as to consider it a mere variety of the 

 common Grasshopper- Warbler. Previous to 1869 the only instances on record of its having been 

 obtained in Europe were : — that recorded by Temminck, who states (I. c.) that the specimen 

 described by him was sent to him by Mr. Bruch, of Mayence, and was obtained not far from 

 that town; and Durazzo (I. c.) states that one was taken on the ramparts of Genoa. This latter 

 record of its occurrence in Italy is somewhat called in question by Salvador!, who only refers to 

 it in a footnote in his work on the birds of Italy, and does not include this species as an Italian 

 bird ; and as regards the specimen said by Temminck to have been obtained at Mayence, 

 Malherbe writes (Faune Orn. de la Sicile, p. 07) as follows: — "It is an error on the part of 

 M. Temminck to state that this species was killed near Mayence ; for I am informed by 

 Mr. Bruch that the two specimens in his collection, one of which was the bird sent to 

 M. Temminck, were given to him by one of the Professors at the University of Bonn, who 

 received them from Russia without any particulars as to locality." From the above it will be 

 seen that both the instances of its reputed occurrence previous to 1869 are open to grave doubt. 

 In 1869, however, Mr. Meves, the well-known Swedish collector, visited Northern Russia in 

 order to collect birds, and there shot an undoubted specimen of the present species on the river 

 Onega. This gentleman writes (Of v. K. Vet. Ak. Forh. 1871, p. 749) as follows: — " During my 

 boat-journey down the Onega river, near Posad, I heard about midnight, on the 9th July, a 

 lively and continuous song of a Grasshopper- Warbler, which was in a neighbouring morass 

 covered with low bushes and marsh-herbage. I went on shore ; and though it was not very 

 light, I succeeded ere long in catching sight of the bird, seated on a stump, and shot it. On 

 picking it up I was astonished and delighted to hnd a bird entirely new and unknown to me, 

 and am sure that had either Pastor Brehm or Professor Blasius, like me, a fresh-killed bird in 



their hands, they would never have dreamt of considering it to be a Calamoherpe locustella 



When in St. Petersburg I had an opportunity of comparing my specimens with one shot by 

 Dr. Radde in Mongolia, on the 21st May, 1856, and found that they agreed closely, except that 

 the latter was lighter, and the striations on the underparts were not so clearly defined or large. 

 Another specimen, in the St.-Petersburg Museum, from Jakutsch, obtained 29th May, 1844, 

 closely resembles Dr. Radde's bird, but has a rather stouter and longer (15 millims.) bill and a 

 shorter tail." Beyond these details I can find no record of its occurrence in Europe, as it is an 

 Asiatic species, being met with as far east as Dauria and China. Baron J. W. von Midler writes 



