with the throat entirely blue, received in 18‘23 from the eldest
Brehm (Beiträge, ii. p. 173) the name of Sylvia woiß. This
would appear generally to accompany the white-spotted rather
than the red-spotted form, and to it would seem to be referable
one of Capt. Hadfield’s birds (Zool. s.s. p. 172). With this
possible exception, the Editor has 110 certain information as
to the occurrence in the British Islands of any but the red-
spotted form—the true Ruticilla suecica, of which a male and
female are figured at the head ol this article ; but, as tlieie is
always a likelihood of the white-spotted bird, R. leucocyana,
finding its way to this country, he retains (on page 323) the
representation of it used in former editions of this work.
In the ‘Naumannia’ for 1855 (p. 166) Dr. Alt urn published
some observations which might at first sight appear to
decide the question at issue, and he accordingly thinks that
the supposed three species are but phases ol plumage successively
undergone.* On the other hand, it must be remarked
that a very considerable variation in the length of the
tarsus, commonly correlated with the colouring of the throat
in the males, is observable. Thus in 11. wolfi the tarsus
measures from "95 to 1 in c h ; in 11. leucocyana from 1 04 to
1-08, and in the true R. suecica from 1 to D18, thus shewing
that the entirely blue-throated birds 011 an average have
the shortest and the red-spotted the longest legs, while the
white-spotted form is intermediate in this respect. Furthermore,
not only have, as already said, R. leucocyana and R.
* la July, 1854, Dr. Altum bought a live Bluethroat, a young cock, then
having a dirty-white chin and throat, beneath which was a pale blue band bo 1
dered with black across the upper part of the breast, and lower down the ordinary
reddish colouring. This plumage the bird kept till the beginning of March, 1855,
when the blue already existing gradually became deeper, through the wearing oil
of the white edges of the feathers, and the narrow black border moie distinct,
while some blue feathers sprouted higher up on the throat. The original blue
now became day by day, clearer, and that which had just begun to appear,
broader, so that, on March 21st, it covered the whole throat except the chin and
a round spot of greyish-white in the midst. To his surprise, on the 23rd, he
found this spot grown reddish, so as to resemble the characteristic of the true
li suecica (cierulecula, as he calls it) and two days later the whole breast was
blue, nearly as in R. wolfi. A week afterwards a clear white spot appeared, and
the bird was a perfect A’, leucocyana.
suecica a perfectly distinct breeding-range, but the parts of
Europe inhabited in summer by each are separated by a wide
interval. Thus the first, though local, breeds generally
throughout temperate Europe in suitable places from Holland
across North Germany, and nowhere in these countries does
anyone pretend to have found the second taking up its abode.
Then we have the southern and lower parts of Scandinavia
wherein no Bluethroat at all breeds; but, as soon as we
reach the mosses of its subalpine and northern districts,
a Bluethroat appears, which is invariably the R. suecica,
retaining its characteristic red spot throughout the season,
and breeding as generally in those chilly solitudes as R.
leucocyana does in the lower latitudes of Holland and North
Germany. In the face, then, of these facts, the evidence of
Dr. Altum cannot be deemed conclusive, the more so as a
close attention to his very words, and the instructive figures
by which they are illustrated, shews that his bird never completely
assumed the appearance either of R. ivolfi 01* of R.
suecica, but that it did finally possess the full characteristics
of R. leucocyana, to which form it no doubt belonged.*
The food of this bird is earthworms, insects and berries.
Its song, usually delivered from an exposed branch, and
never more effectively than in the broad daylight of a
Lapland midsummer’s night, is indescribably delicious and
varied, as may be inferred from the bird bearing in the
extreme north of Europe a name, signifying “ Hundred
tongues,” which further south is given to the larger Nightingale.
Its call-note is plaintive, and the cry of alarm
loud and harsh. On the ground, its movements are so brisk
and even that it has been said by good observers, among
them Beclistein and Mr. Blyth, to run like a Wagtail, but,
so far as the Editor’s experience goes, and in this he is
confirmed by Naumann’s opinion, its progress, though much
more speedy, is by hopping like a Redbreast, to which bird
* l)r. Altum s opinion is also ably controverted in the ‘ (Efversigt ’ of the
Academy of Stockholm for 1860 (xvii. p. 201) by Herr Meves, but this observant
naturalist is certainly mistaken when he supposes R. leucocyana to be only
the young of R. wolfi.
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