but must resort to Protection as a medicine. Some plausible physicians suggest a different remedy. They assert that Russia should honestly admit her bankruptcy, and offer her creditors a fair composition, as other bankrupts do or ought to do. They say that if Russia was to pay her interest for the future in paper roubles, and adopt Free Trade, that her commerce would develop to such an extent that the country itself would benefit enormously, and that in the long run, by the rise in the value of the rouble, the bondholder would be better off than he will be when the inevitable break-down of the present system comes.

There can be no doubt that the internal resources of Russia are immense, and that under a wise government, which made their development possible, Russia would soon become one of the wealthiest nations of Europe. Unfortunately the present Emperor has not the courage to attempt to govern his country justly.

BRONZE CELT FROM ANCIENT GRAVE NEAR KRASNOYARSK.

Ornithological results of the trip-Siberian forms of birds Discoveries of PallasComparison of European and Siberian birds-Interbreeding of allied speciesAffinity of European and Japanese species-Sub-species-Conclusion.

THE ornithological results of my trip to Siberia in Asia were on the whole satisfactory. It was a great disappointment to me not to get to the coast, and still more so to miss the birds of the Kara Sea, and to arrive on the Tundra too late for most of the eggs I was in search of. The enforced delay in

the pine forests produced, however, some very interesting results, and, take it altogether, the excursion must be pronounced a success, although I did not solve the problems which our expedition to Siberia in Europe left open. It is very seldom that the first expedition to a strange land is successful. The pioneer can do little more than discover the localities where future researches may be successfully made. My great mistake was that I wintered too far north. Had I waited the arrival of migratory birds at Yen-e-saisk' instead of on the Arctic Circle, my ornithological bag would have been increased fourfold in value. On my return journey my time was necessarily very limited, and I was obliged to husband my ammunition. It was also the most unfavourable time of the whole year for making ornithological observations. During the breeding season many birds forsake the neighbourhood of the villages and the cultivated land, and scatter themselves through the forests; and whilst they are moulting in the autumn they seem to be fully aware that their powers of flight are limited, and that, consequently, they are an easy prey to their raptorial enemies, and therefore they seem afraid to trust themselves on the wing. For the most part they are silent at this season, and skulk amongst the underwood, and it is only by chance that one can obtain a shot at them.

My plans were also considerably disarranged by the two shipwrecks, which did not form a part of my original programme; nevertheless an enumeration of the most important observations which I made may not be without interest to the reader.

U

Authentic eggs of the Asiatic Golden Plover had never before been taken, nor the habits of the bird at its breeding grounds recorded.

The interbreeding of the Carrion Crow with the Hooded Crow had never been noticed on such a large scale, nor had the fact that the hybrids between these two species are fertile been satisfactorily ascertained.

The nest and eggs of three species of Willow-Warbler, the Arctic Willow-Warbler, the Siberian Chiffchaff, and the Yellow-browed Warbler, were absolutely unknown before my visit to the Yen-e-say', and my specimens of these eggs still remain unique.

The Sedge-Warbler had never been found in Asia before (except in Turkestan); nor had our Willow-Warbler ever been known to breed there, the only previous record of the latter bird on the Asiatic continent being from Persia, where it seems that the Willow-Warblers which breed in North-East Russia winter.

The nest and eggs of the Little Bunting had been described by Middendorf, but it was not known that any examples of these beautiful eggs existed in any collection.

The eggs and nesting habits of the Mountain Accentor were previously unknown and undescribed.

The young in first plumage of the Dusky Ouzel, the Dark Ouzel, and the Black-throated Ouzel, were all undescribed.

The geographical range of the Siberian Pipit and the Siberian Herring-Gull, two birds which Harvie-Brown and I may claim to have almost rediscovered, was extended, and,

by the help of the skins in the museum at St. Petersburg, completed.

The eggs of the Red-breasted Goose were only previously known from a drawing in Middendorf's Travels in Siberia.

The additional eggs of Bewick's Swan and the Little Stint which I obtained were very valuable, as the eggs which Harvie-Brown and I obtained in the valley of the Petchora were the only eggs of these birds then

known in collections.

The examples of the Rock Ptarmigan which I obtained were the first which had been found on the mainland of the palæarctic region.

The example of the male in breeding plumage of Middendorf's Reed-Bunting which I obtained, and which was figured in the Ibis for 1879, plate 1,

was new.

Besides these results, there are one or two generalizations which I was only able to make when my Siberian plunder had been carefully compared with collections from Europe and China. These investigations have also been much increased in value and importance by small collections, which M. Kibort (the Polish ornithologist whom I discovered in Kras-no-yarsk') has from time to time sent me.

6

The pioneer of Siberian ornithology was Pallas, whose Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica' was written in 1806, though,