38 
Analyses of Books. 
[January. 
Siberia in Europe. A Visit to the Valley of the Petchora in 
North East Russia ; with Descriptions of the Natural 
History, Migration of Birds, &c. By H. Seebohm, F.L.S., 
F.G.S., F.R.G.S. London: John Murray. 
We have here the narrative of an ornithological tour undertaken 
in 1875 by the author and his friend J. A. Harvie Brown, to a 
very scantily known region. Though situate within the Ardtic 
circle the valley of the Petchora offers an interesting field of ob- 
servation for the naturalist. There were half a dozen species of 
birds known to visit England whose breeding grounds were a 
mystery. Of three of these, viz., the grey plover, the little stint, 
and Bewick’s swan, our travellers succeeded in bringing home 
identified eggs. Two of the remaining, the sanderling and the 
knot, were found breeding in lat. 82° N., by Captain Fielder, of 
the Nares Ardtic Expedition, and one alone, the curlew sand- 
piper, is left as a problem for future explorers in the far north. 
Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown have further added several 
species of birds to the European fauna, such as the Siberian chiff- 
chaff, the Petchora pipit, the Siberian herring-gull, the Ardtic 
forms of the marsh-tit, and the lesser spotted wood-pecker, the 
yellow-headed wagtail, and the Asiatic stonechat. The unity of 
the Palasardtic region is thus confirmed and the arguments in 
favour of a zoo-geographical separation of Europe from Asia pro- 
portionately weakened. But the Author concludes that “ as 
far as the Polar regions are concerned the division into Neardtic 
and Palasardtic is a purely arbitrary one.” Of the no species 
which he obtained 32 breed both in the eastern and western 
hemispheres. About 17 more belong especially to the eastern 
polar region, but every one is represented by a species in the 
western polar regions belonging to the same genus. The water- 
shed between the Yenesay and the Lena appears almost as im- 
portant a boundary as Behring’s Straits. The author notices 
that though the species of birds within the Ardtic circle are few, 
the individuals may be counted almost by millions, a fact ex- 
plained by the superabundance of food during the brief summer. 
For the fruit and seed eaters there is an unlimited supply of 
berries, “ whilst insedt-eating birds have only to open their 
mouths to fill them with mosquitoes.” These little wretches, 
Culex damnabilis of Rae appear to abound to a degree unsur- 
passed, if equalled, in any tropical swamp. Says the author, 
Our hats were covered with them ; they swarmed upon our veils ; 
they lined with a fringe the branches of the dwarf birches and 
willows ; they covered the tundra with a mist.” They were told 
“ wait a little and you will not be able to see each other at 
twenty paces distance; you will not be able to aim with your 
gun, for the moment you raise your barrel half a dozen regiments 
