Mr, H. Seeboiim on the Ornithology of Siberia, 337 
white edgings to the tail-feathers are narrow. They have 
all striped under tail-coverts ; and all but two have streaked 
rumps, 
I am inclined to think that L, exiiipes is the same species 
as L. Unarm. I do not see that it is even a good variety. 
So far as I can make out_, the difiPerences are only those of 
agOj sexj and season. If they must be separated^ I think the 
colour of the under tail-coverts is a better character to go 
upon than that of the rump. Five birds^ all males, have larger 
bills than the rest. Four of these have streaked rumps and 
under tail-coverts, the fifth is the slightly immature bird pre¬ 
viously mentioned as having been shot on the 7th of April. 
I found these birds common as far north as I went, i. e, 
lat. 71i°. 
Emberiza pusilla, Pall. 
The arrival of birds in the Arctic regions is dependent, to 
a large extent, upon the arrival of summer, which comes 
suddenly with the breaking up of the ice on the river, and 
the general melting of the snow. Last year, summer was 
unusually late in Northern Asia. On the Arctic circle, in the 
valley of the Yen-e-say', the ice on the river began to break 
up on the 1st of June, and migratory birds arrived in great 
numbers. On the 7th the Little Bunting arrived, in com¬ 
pany with the Golden Plover and the Dark Thrush, nearly 
in the middle of the spring migration. 
Before the snow, which was lying upon the ground to the 
depth of five or six feet up to the 1st of June, had sufficiently 
melted to make the forests penetrable, the Little Bunting was 
extremely abundant, and its unobtrusive song was constantly 
heard. On the 23rd of June I found the first nest, I was 
on the south bank of the Koo-ray'-i-ka, and was scrambling 
through the forest down the hill towards my boat, amongst 
tangled underwood and fallen tree-trunks, rotten and moss- 
grown, when a Little Bunting started up out of the grass at 
my feet. It did not fly away, but flitted from branch to 
branch within six feet of me. I knew at once that it must 
have a nest; and in a quarter of a minute I found it, half 
2a 
SEE. IV.-VOL. II. 
