Figs. 31–34
Distribution. Europe, including Central and Southern European Russia, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, mountains of Central Asia, South Siberia from the Urals to Buryatia, Mongolia, and North China.
Locality. 5. The Central Tien Shan Mts., the Kekemeren River Gorge 8–9 km downstream from Kozhomkul Village, mountain steppes on the left bank, 27. VI. 2014. Signals of 2 ♂ recorded on disk at 36o C.
References to song. Ragge & Reynolds (1998): recordings from Western Europe; Vedenina & Bukhvalova (2001): recordings from the North Caucasus, South Kazakhstan, and Altai Mountains; Tishechkin & Bukhvalova (2009a): recordings from Saratov Oblast and Eastern Siberia.
Song. The song is a loud echeme-sequence lasting 10–30 s (Figs. 31–32). Each echeme consists of two parts: about 7–10 short syllables are followed by 8–14 longer ones (Figs. 33–34). Echeme repetition period averages 650 ms in our recordings from Central Asia. Quite often, male produces a succession of low-amplitude syllables at the beginning or end of the song. Duration of this additional part can vary greatly.
Comparative notes. S. scalaris is a mesophilous species living in more or less dense grass. For this reason, the mountains of Central Asia represent an isolated part of its range, similarly to G. sibiricus. Nevertheless, the songs of males from the Central Tien Shan Mts. do not differ from the songs recorded in Europe, the Caucasus, and Siberia.