UC-NRLF

EUROPE

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SIBEKIA IN EUBOPE.

SIBEEIA IN EUBOPE

A VISIT TO THE VALLEY OF THE PETCHOEA,
INNOETH-EASTEUSSIA;

WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY, MIGRATION
OF BIRDS, ETC.

BY HENKY SEEBOHM,

F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.R.G.S.

WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:
JOHN MUKKAY, ALBEMAELE STEEET.

1880.

The right of Translation is reserved.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

8TAMFOBD 8TBEKT AND CHARING CBOSS.

PKEFACE.

THE following pages contain the narrative of a
trip, which I made in the year 1875, to the lower
valley of the Petchora, in North-East Eussia, in
company with my friend J. A. Harvie-Brown, Esq.,
of Duriipace, a naturalist well known in ornitho-
logical circles for excellent field-work in various
parts of Scotland, in Archangel, and in Transylvania.
I have endeavoured to pourtray the character of the
people with whom we came in contact with as little
political or religious bias as possible, and to give as
vivid a picture as I was able of a country widely
different from our own, and possessing a climate of
an almost opposite character to that of England.
Little or nothing of importance has been added since
my return home. I have given the reader credit for
wishing to know something more of the birds we
met with than we learnt on our trip, and I have
endeavoured to give him an opportunity of satisfying
his curiosity by foot-notes, to which he may refer or

3G7827

vi PREFACE.

not as he likes. In some cases I have been obliged
to correct errors of identification which we occasion-
ally made ; and I have introduced a chapter on the
migration of birds, but inasmuch as this was princi-
pally written upon the island of Heligoland, it can
scarcely be looked upon as padding.

Whatever merit the book may possess will doubt-
less be owing to the fact that it was for the most
part written upon the spot. It is a faithful tran-
script of a stranger's first impressions of a part of
Europe seldom or never visited by Englishmen,
written at post stations whilst the horses were
being changed, or in peasants' cottages, wrecked
ships, or wherever our temporary quarters may have
been. The accuracy which ornithological observa-
tions demand, made it imperatively necessary that
what was seen should be at once recorded, and many
a time eighteen or twenty hours' field-work have
been followed by two or three hours' writing before
we allowed ourselves rest. The general reader may
perhaps complain that the book is too ornithological ;
but he must remember that an enthusiasm of some
sort is necessary to lead the traveller into scenes
where no hotels exist, where unknown difficulties
have to be met, and which are absolutely virgin
ground to the tourist. The writer also ventures to

PREFACE. . vii

hope that the ornithological part of his little work
may also interest the general reader. However dry
the technical part of the subject may be considered, the
study of Field Ornithology is a branch of Natural
History which has always been a great favourite
with Englishmen. Foreign writers may have pro-
duced more scientific works upon the subject ; but
the peculiarity of English ornithological research
has been that, to a large extent, it is the work of
amateurs, who make it a labour of love, whilst on
the Continent most ornithological writers have been
professional men connected with the various mu-
seums. An English ornithologist often begins by
being a sportsman and ends by being a naturalist ;
and if closet natural history has been until perhaps
quite recently carried to a higher point of scientific
accuracy in Holland, Germany, and France, the
British ornithologists, both of our own Islands and
in India, have done the best field-work.

The results of our visit to this ultima Tkule of
Europe must be taken for what they are worth. We
had no hair-breadth escapes to record, and our
adventures may appear somewhat tame to a member
of the Alpine Club; but the conditions of life in
Siberia in Europe are so entirely different to those
observed by the ordinary tourist, that our travels

viii PREFACE.

have at least the charm of novelty. It is true that
we had to put up sometimes with hardships, but
the recollection even of them is one of unmixed
pleasure. Would that the narrative of our success
might stimulate some of our junior ornithologists to
follow in our steps. Much yet remains to be done.
It is absurd to suppose that the ornithology of such
a wide district could be exhausted in a single trip.
Our information' about those curious people, the
Samoyedes, must be considered as only supple-
mentary to, and confirmatory of, the account con-
tained in Kae's * Land of the North Wind,' or the
more elaborate observations of Castren and Schrenck.
We neither of us make any claim to a scientific
knowledge of ethnology, and the information on the
subject contained in the following pages is merely
such as interested us as tourists, and which, together
with the greater portion of our ornithological obser-
vations, may prove interesting to the general reader.

.CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

John Wolley — Unknown breeding-grounds — Birds of Archangel and
Lapland — Voyages to the Petchora in the seventeenth century —
Schrenck's visit in 1837 — Castren's visit in 1842 — Keyserling's visit
in 1843 — Pelzam's visit in 1874 — Hoffrnansegg's visit about 1850 —
Outfit — Letters of introduction .. .. .. .. .. Page 1

CHAPTEE II.

London to St. Petersburg — Mode of heating railway carriages — Frozen
Market at St. Petersburg — Bohemian waxwings — Moscow to Vologda —
M. Verakin — Sledging from Vologda to Archangel — The Yemschik —
Post-houses — The Samovar — Angliski Kuss — Modes of yoking horses
— State of the roads — Weather — Traffic — Scenery — Birds — Arrival at
Archangel.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7

CHAPTEE III.

The white city Archangel — Decline of its commerce —Cheapness of living
— Peter Kotzoif — Father Inokentia — Samoyede vocabulary — Their
sledges — Their appearance — Samoyede names of birds — Their national
songs — Election of their chiefs — Their ignorance of doctors or medicinal
plants — Piottuch — Birds — The weather — Hasty departure from Arch-
angel .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 15

CHAPTEE IV.

Bad roads — Postal service in winter and summer — Changeable weather —
Scenery — Pinega and Kuloi rivers — Snow plains — The forests — Birds
— Samoyedes— Mezen — Polish exile — Snow-buntings— How caught—
Jackdaws — We leave Mezdn — The weather— Scenery— The Mezdu

x CONTENTS.

river — The Pizhma — The roads — Piottuch's accident — The Via
diabolica — Bolshanivagorskia — Break-up of the road — Polish prejudices
— The villages — Curiosity of the peasants — Greek crosses — Love of
ornament — Employment and amusements — Samoyedes — Birds —
Umskia— First view of the Petchora— Arrival at Ust-Zylma. Page 23

CHAPTER V.

Ust-Zylma — Its streets — Its houses — Its manure — Its population — Its
farms — Its churches — Our quarters — The banks of the river — The Old
Believers — Their superstitions — Their crosses — Hospitality of the
officials — Shooting-parties — Captain Arendt and Captain Engel — Snow
shoes — Scarcity of birds — The snow-bunting — Mealy redpole — Winter

40

CHAPTER VI.

The Samoyedes — Keindeer — The tundra — Nomad life — Diseases of rein-
deer— Samoyede national character — Trip to Umskia — Bad roads —
Birds — Easter Eve — Drunkenness — Snow — Our first bird's-nest —
Uautre cote — Birds 54

CHAPTER VII.

Trip to Habariki — Samoyedes — Lassoing reindeer — Dogs — Birds — Samoy-
ede sledges — Reindeer harness — The chooms — Samoyede hospitality
— Marriage ceremonies — Funeral rites — Religion .. .. 63

CHAPTER VIII.

May-day — Soow-buntings — Jackdaws — Game — Birds of prey — Sunday at
Ust-Zylma — A fire — Marriage ceremony — Tenure of land — The com-
mune— Preparations for summer .. ... .. .. 78

CHAPTER IX.

Mild weather — Bear tracks — Saddle of bear — First rain — Six new migra-
tory birds — Magpie's eggs — Cessation of the winter frost — Return of
winter — A wild goose chase — Cachets — Night on the banks of the
Petchora — The silent forest — A new bird 88

CONTENTS. , xi

CHAPTER X.

Gulls — Species new to Europe — Fresh arrivals — Duck-shooting— Bird-life
in the forest — Gulls perching in trees — Break-up of the ice on the
Zylma — On the wrong bank of the river—Dragging the boats across
the ice — Final break-up of the ice on the Petchora .. Page 98

CHAPTER XL

Religious processions — Costumes of the peasants — A Russian holiday —
Drunkenness — Prejudices of the Old Believers — Field-work — House-
building— New birds — The Siberian chiff-chaff — Prices of provisions —
Arrival of waders .. 113

CHAPTER XII.

Samoyede names — The Swedish mocking-bird — Toads — Birds resting on
migration — Sparrow-hawk — The Petchora free from ice — A new song
— Ceremony of blessing the steamer — Rambles in the woods — Arrival
of the mosquitoes.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 124

CHAPTER XIII.

Trip to Habariki — Forest scenery — Tarns in the woods — Changeable
weather — New birds identified in the forest — Golden eagle — Osprey —
The hobby — The cuckoo — Yellow-headed wagtail — Bohemian waxwing
— Great snipe — Terek sandpiper — Goosander — Smew — Black- throated
diver .. .. .. •• 136

CHAPTER XIV.

Return to Ust-Zylma — Wedding of the engineer's son — Scarlet bullfinch —
Last days at Ust-Zylma — Our boat— We sail to Habariki— Birds' eggs
— Smew's eggs — Snipes in trees — Down the Petchora — Sedge warbler
— Black-cock — Arctic tern — Willow swamps — We cross the Arctic
Circle — A new bird — Arrival at Viski — The delta — Double snipe —
Pustazursk — The tundra— Arrival at Alexievka .. .. 152

xli . CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

Alexievka — The timber rafts — The island — Nest and eggs — Buffon's skua
— Sailing for the tundra — Description of the tundra — Its vegetation —
Nests of Lapland bunting and red-throated pipit — First sight of the
grey plover— Its nest — Watching by the nest — Shot at last — Omelette
of grey plover's eggs — Birds seen on the tundra — Eggs collected during
the day — Blowing eggs — Nest of the Petchora pipit .. Page 174

CHAPTER XVI.

The tundra near the Yooshina river — Golden plover's eggs — Various nests
— Lapland bunting — Various birds — Richardson's skua — Various
means 'of propelling 'our boat — The tundra near Stanavialachta — Eyrie
of a peregrine falcon — Various nests — Abundance of willow grouse —
Nest of the willow grouse — Visit to two islands in the delta . . 186

CHAPTER XVII.

Examination of nests — Excursion to Wasilkova — Search for breeding
haunts of Bewick's swan — News from England — Grey plover's eggs —
Flock of Buffon's skuas — Black scoter's nest — Watching for skuas' nests
— Another nest of grey plovers — Scaup's eggs — The Zyriani .. 194

CHAPTER XVIII.

Second visit to Stanavialachta — Peregrine falcons — Plague of mosquitoes
— Midnight on the tundra — Nest of the velvet scoter — Little Feodor sent
in quest of the swan's skin — A Russian bath — Feodor's return — Identi-
fication of eggs of Bewick's swan — Mosquito veils — Our eighth nest of
grey plovers— Our servants — Our ninth nest of grey plovers — The
tenth nest.-. .. 208

CHAPTER XIX.

Trip to the Golievski Islands — Shoal of white whales — Glaucous gulls —
Dunlins and sanderlings — Black scoter — Dvoinik — Little stint — Curlew
sandpiper — Snow-bunting — Overhauling our plunder — The Company's
manager — Discussions concerning the stints — Probable line of migra-
tion followed by birds .. .. .. .. 226

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTEE XX.

Hibernation of birds — Migration of birds — Reed warblers — Origin of mi-
gration— Transvaal warblers — The mammoth age — Insect life — Lines
of migration — Heligoland — Its ornithologists — Variety of birds — Wind
and weather — The throstle-bushes — Migration by sight — Order of
migration — Stray migrants — The yellow-browed warbler — Migration
on Heligoland — Skylarks — Migratory instincts — Other facts of mi-
gration .. ' .. Page 242

CHAPTER XXI.

Trip to Kuya — The prahms — Travelling in a Rosposki — The birds we saw
— Arrival of the Triad at Alexievka — We win over the manager — The
Ino — Doing Robinson Crusoe in a wrecked ship — Nest of the long-
tailed duck — Our first little stint's nest — The tundra — Sunset and sun-
rise— Little stint's eggs — The tundra near Bolvanski Bucht — Phalaropes
— Interior of the tundra — Change of plumage in phalaropes — An early
morning start — Confusion of time — The snowy owl — Two more nests of
the little stint — A march of geese on the tundra — An old grave . . 262

CHAPTEE XXII.

On short commons — Bad weather — A foraging party — Russian supersti-
tions— Return of the steamer — Beautiful flowers— Arrival at Alexievka
— Departure for home — Thunder-storm — -Waterspout — Sea-birds —
Hard fare — Copenhagen — Results of the trip .. .. ... 284

CHAPTEE XXIII.

Summary of the trip — Summer in the Arctic regions — Circumpolar

birds — Birds confined to the eastern hemisphere — Various ranges

of birds— Migration of birds — Dates of arrival— Probable route-
Conclusion

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

GREY PLOVER .. .. .. .. .. .. 1

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 6

SLEDGING THROUGH THE SNOW .. .. .. .. .. 7

SAMOYEDE KNIVES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 14

LITTLE STINTS .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 15

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 22

UST-ZYLMA 23

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 39

ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE OLD BELIEVERS .. .. .. 40

CHOOMS OF THE SAMOYEDES .. .. .. .. .. 54

LASSOING REINDEER.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 63

REIN RESTS 70

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 77

A SPILL IN THE SNOW .. .. .. .. .. .. 78

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. ... .. .. .. 87

SHOOTING WILD GEESE .. .. .. .. .. .. 88

THE BANKS OF THE ZYLMA .. .. .. .. .. 98

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 112

DIFFICULTIES WITH SNOW-SHOES .. .. .. .. .. 113

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 123

WILLOW GROUSE .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 124

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 135

THE FLOODED BANKS OF THE RIVER .. .. .. .. 136

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 151

SAILING DOWN THE DELTA.. .. .. .. .. .. 152

PLOUGHING AT UST-ZYLMA 173

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

PAGE

ALEXIEVKA FROM THE TUNDRA .. .. .. .. 174

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. 135

STANAVIALACHTA .. .. .. .. .. .. .. igg

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 193

GREY PLOVER'S NEST AND YOUNG .. .. .. .. 194

A SWAN'S NEST .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 197

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 207

KUYA 208

WATCHING GREY PLOVERS THROUGH A CLOUD OP MOSQUITOES 211

MOSQUITO VEIL .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 225

LITTLE STINT'S NEST, EGGS AND YOUNG.. .. .. .. 226

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 241

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT HELIGOLAND ON A MIGRATION NIGBT .. 242

VIEW OF HELIGOLAND .. .. ., .. .. .. 259

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. ., .. 261

DOING ROBINSON CRUSOE AT DVOINIK 262

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 283

MIGRATION OF GEESE .. .. .. .. .. .. 284

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS .. .. .. .. .. 293

FROM MEKITZA TO KUYA ON A ROSPOSKI .. .. .. 294

OUR HEADQUARTERS AT UST-ZYLMA .. .. .. 303

MAP . at the end.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

GREY PI/)VER.

SIBERIA IN EUROPE

CHAPTER I.

John Wolley — Unknown breeding-grounds — Birds of Archangel and Lapland —
Voyages to the Petchora in the seventeenth century — Schrenck's visit in 1837
— Castren's visit in 1842 — Keyserling's visit in 1843 — Pelzam's visit in
1874 — Hoffmansegg's visit about 1850 — Outfit — Letters of introduction.

THE history of British birds has been enthusiastically studied
by ornithologists during the last half-century. In spring
and autumn several species of birds annually visit our shores
in considerable numbers, passing us in their migrations to
and from unknown breeding-grounds. These migrations,
and the geographical distribution of birds, have of late years

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. I.

'occupied a large share of the attention of ornithologists.
The name of John Wolley stands pre-eminent amongst the
discoverers in this department of science. His indefatigable
labours in Lapland about twenty years ago are still fresh in
the memory of the present generation of ornithologists, who
will never cease to regret his untimely death. Notwith-
standing his researches, there remained half-a-dozen well-
known British birds whose breeding-grounds still con-
tinued wrapt in mystery, to solve which has been the
ambition of many field naturalists during the past twenty
years. These birds, to the discovery of whose eggs special
interest seemed to attach, were the Grey Plover, the Little
Stint, the Sanderling, the Curlew Sandpiper, the Knot,* and
Bewick's Swan.

* The Knot (Tringa canutus, Linn.)
was the only one of these six species
of birds which we did not meet with
in the valley of the Petchora. It pro-
bably breeds on the shores of the Polar
basin in both hemispheres, but its eggs
are absolutely unknown. On several
of the Arctic expeditions the knot has
been observed during the breeding
season, but no eggs were obtained.
Captain Fielden writes (Nares' 'Voyage
to the Polar Sea,' Appendix, vol. ii.
p. 212): "During the month of July
my companions and I often endea-
voured to discover the nest of this
bird ; but none of us were successful.
However, on July 30, 1876, the day
before we broke out of our winter
quarters [in lat. 82£°], where we had
.been frozen in eleven months, three of

our seamen, walking by the border of
a small lake not far from the ship,
came upon an old bird accompanied by
three nestlings, which they brought to
me. The old bird proved to be a male ;
its stomach and those of the young
ones were filled with insects. . . . The
knot bred in the vicinity of Discovery.
Bay, but no eggs were found there,
though the young were obtained in all
stages of plumage." During the winter
the knot is almost cosmopolitan in its
range. It is exceedingly common on the
shores of Great Britain, and is more
or less frequently obtained in various
parts of Europe, Africa, South Asia, and
even in Australia and New Zealand. On
the American continent it is found on
both coasts, occasionally straying as far
as the South American shores.

CHAP. r. « PURCHAS HIS PILGRIMES.' 3

In 1872 my friend John A. Harvie-Brown accompanied
K. Alston on an ornithological expedition to Archangel, the
results of which were published in the i Ibis ' for January,
1873 ; and in 1874, 1 went with Kobert Collett of Christiania
to the north of Norway. Neither of these journeys added
any very important fact to the stock of ornithological know-
ledge ; but in each case they considerably increased our
interest in Arctic ornithology, and gave us a knowledge of
the notes and habits of many Arctic birds which was of
invaluable assistance to us on our subsequent journeys. The
difference between the birds found at Archangel and those
at the north of Norway was so striking that we, as well as
many of our ornithological friends, were convinced that
another ten degrees east would bring us to the breeding-
ground of many species new to North Europe ; and there was
a chance, besides, that among these might be found some
of the half-dozen birds which I have named, the discovery
of whose breeding-haunts was the special object of our
ambition.

My friend Harvie-Brown had been collecting information
about the river Petchora for some time, and it was finally
arranged that we should spend the summer of 1875 there
together. We were under the impression that, ornithologi-
cally speaking, it was virgin ground, but in this we afterwards
discovered that we were mistaken. So far as we were able to
ascertain, no Englishman had travelled from Archangel to the
Petchora for 250 years. In that curious old book called
' Purchas his Pilgrimes,' published in 1625, may be found
the narrative of divers merchants and mariners who visited

4 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. i.

this river between the years 1611 and 1615 for the purpose
of establishing a trade there in furs and skins, especially
beaver, for. which Ust-Zylma on the Petchora was at that
time celebrated.

In 1837 Alexander G-ustav Schrenck visited the Petchora
under the auspices of the Imperial Botanical Gardens at
St. Petersburg, and published voluminous information respect-
ing the botany and the ethnology of this district.

In 1842 Castren was sent out by the Swedish Government
and collected much valuable information about the Samoyedes
and the other races of North-East Kussia. The following
year, Paul von Krusenstern and Alexander Graf Keyserling
visited the Petchora, and published an important work
upon the geology and physical geography of the country,
but none of these travellers seem to have written anything
upon the subject of birds beyond a mere passing mention of
ducks and geese. In St. Petersburg we learnt that Dr. Pelzam,
from the museum at Kazan, visited the Petchora in 1874, but
from information we obtained on that river, it would appear
that he spent most of his time in dredging and paid little
attention to birds. In Archangel we made a more important
discovery. We there met the man who had been guide to
Hencke and Hoffmansegg some twenty or five-and-twenty
years ago, From him we learnt that those naturalists had
spent a year or more on the Petchora, had there collected
birds and eggs, and had been very successful in finding all
that they were in search of. We cannot, however, learn that
these gentlemen published anything respecting the birds of
the Petchora. They seem to have collected chiefly as a

CHAP. i. OUR OUTFIT. 5

commercial speculation, and to have sent their spoils to a
dealer in Dresden, through whom some rare eggs, doubtless
from this district, found their way to Mr. Dunn, of Orkney,
and were subsequently distributed amongst English collectors.
In consequence of the trade jealousy of the dealers these eggs
were sold without authentication, and hence possess no
scientific value whatever ; therefore, practically, the Petchora
may be considered to have been virgin ground to the orni-
thologist.

Our outfit was simple. We determined to be trammelled
with as little luggage as possible. Besides the necessary
changes of clothing we took each a pair of Cording's india-
rubber boots, which we found invaluable. To protect our faces
from the mosquitoes, we provided ourselves with silk gauze
veils, with a couple of wire hoops inserted opposite the bridge
of the nose and the chin, like little crinolines. These simple
Jcomarniks proved a complete success. On a hot summer's
day life without them would have been simply unendurable.
Of course the heat and sense of being somewhat stifled had
to be borne, as by far the lesser of two evils. Our hands we
protected by the regulation cavalry gauntlet. We took two
tents with us, but had no occasion to use them. Our net
hammocks served as beds by night, and sofas by day, and
very luxurious we found them. We each took a double-
barrelled breech-loader, and a walking-stick gun. Five hundred
cartridges for each weapon, with the necessary appliances for
re-loading, we found amply sufficient. The only mistake we
made, we afterwards found, was in not taking baking powder,
nor sufficient dried vegetables and Liebig's extract of meat.

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. I.

A portable cooking apparatus, heated by spirits of wine, was
occasionally useful, but as a rule we found that a wood fire
with a substantial stewpot and frying-pan answered the
purpose best.

In travelling in Kussia, it is of the utmost importance to
be on good terms with the officials, and we were most fortunate
in obtaining the best introductions. Our warmest thanks
are due to Count Schouvaloff for his kindness in giving us
letters that ensured us a welcome such as we could not have
expected, and which added very largely to the safety and
success of our trip.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

SLEDGING THROUGH THE SNOW.

CHAPTER II.

London to St. Petersburg — Mode of heating railway carriages — Frozen market
at St. Petersburg — Bohemian waxwings — Moscow to Vologda — M. Verakin —
Sledging from Vologda to Archangel — The Yemschik — Post-houses — The
Samovar — Angliski Russ — Modes of yoking horses — State of the roads —
Weather — Traffic — Scenery — Birds — Arrival at Archangel.

WE left London on the 3rd of March, 1875. A journey of
four days and three nights, including a comfortable night's
rest at Cologne and a few hours each at Hanover and Berlin,
landed us in St. Petersburg. In Belgium it was cold, but
there was no snow. In Germany we saw skaters on the ice,
and there were patches of snow in shady corners. As we
proceeded eastwards the snow and cold increased, and in
Kussia the whole ground was from one to two feet deep in

SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. n.

snow, and sledges were the only conveyances to be seen at
the stations. As far as Cologne the railway carriages were
heated by the ordinary hot-water foot-warmer, and very com-
fortable they were, with a temperature outside of about 40°.
From Hanover to Berlin the carriages were heated with
charcoal fires under the seats, and the sense of oppression
from foul air was so intolerable, that we were only too glad
to shiver with the windows open and the thermometer down
to 20°. From Berlin to the frontier the carriages were heated
by steam pipes, with an arrangement for regulating the heat,
and although the temperature outside continued the same,
we were able to keep a comfortable temperature of 60°
without any sense of suffocation. In Kussia the carriages
were heated with wood fires, and we kept up about the same
temperature without any sense of discomfort, although the
thermometer had fallen to 5° outside. At Wirballen our
letters of introduction saved us from an immensity of trouble
and formality, thanks to the courtesy of M. de Pisanko and
the other officials.

We spent four days at St. Petersburg, sight-seeing and
completing the preparations for our journey. The morning
after our arrival was the last day of the " butter fair," and
we were very much amused and interested, especially with
the ice slide, which is one of its great features. A most
interesting sight to us was the frozen market. Here, one
stall would be full of frozen pigs, there another, laden almost
mountain high with frozen sides of oxen and deer. Part of
the market was occupied by rows of stalls, on which the frozen
fish lay, piled up in stacks. Another portion devoted to

CHAP. ii. ST. PETERSBURG TO VOLOGDA. 9

birds and game, heaps of capercailzie, black grouse, hazel
grouse (the rdbchik of the Kussians), willow grouse (the
koropatki of the Russians), &c., stacks of white hares, and
baskets full of small birds. Amongst the latter we were
anxious to secure some Bohemian waxwings, in order, if
possible, to throw some light upon the vexed question of the
difference between the sexes of their species. We bought
a dozen of the most perfect skins for eighty kopecks. There
were not many waxwings in the market, and all those we
bought proved, on dissection, to be males. In winter these
birds go in flocks, and it would seem that the sexes flock
separately, as is known to be the case with many other
species.

On the evening of the 10th of March we left St. Peters-
burg, and travelled by rail all night to Moscow, where we
spent a day. In the frozen market there we were told that
waxwings were seen only in autumn. Jackdaws and hooded
crows we found very abundant in Moscow. We left in the
evening, and travelled per rail all night and the whole of the
next day, reaching Vologda at midnight.

We had previously written to the English consul in Arch-
angel, and he was kind enough to buy fur dresses for us, and
send them on to St. Petersburg. He also commissioned
M. Verakin, a Russian merchant in Vologda, to furnish us
\\ith a sledge and provisions for the journey. M. Verakin
treated us most hospitably, would not hear of our going
to an hotel, and gave us every assistance in his power.
Unfortunately, he spoke only his native Russ, but at last he
found us an interpreter in the person of the German servant

io SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. n.

of the Oberst Gendarme, and we were able, through him, to
convey our thanks to our host for his kindness to us.

From 8 A.M. on Sunday morning, the 14th of March, to
Thursday at noon, we travelled by sledge day and night
from Vologda to Archangel, a distance of nearly 600 Eng-
lish miles. Our sledge was drawn by three horses, driven
by a peasant called the " yemschik." Both horses and
drivers were changed at each station. There were thirty-
six stages, varying in distance from fifteen to twenty-seven
versts (ten to nineteen English miles). The horses were
generally good, small, tough, shaggy, animals, apparently
never groomed, but very hardy. We had but one lazy horse
out of the 108 which we employed on the journey. Another
broke down altogether, and had to be left on the roadside to
follow as best it could. That this treatment was not a solitary
instance, was proved by the fact that, on one of the stages
(the one of twenty-seven versts), we passed two horses wh-"ch
had evidently broken down, and had been cast aside in the
same way, and were lying dead and frozen on the road.
The drivers were very civil and generally drove well, urging
on the horses rather by the voice than the whip, often
apparently imitating the bark of a wolf to frighten them,
and at other times swearing at them in every variety of oath
of which the Russian language is capable. The yemschiks
were perfectly satisfied with a pour-boire of one kopeck per
verst. The horses were charged three kopecks per verst
each. There was generally a comfortable room at the sta-
tions, and the station-masters usually came out to receive us.
Sometimes we did not quit our sledge, but if we were

CHAP. ii. CHANGING HORSES. It

hungry we carried our provision-basket into the station-
house, ordered the " samovar," and made tea. The samovar
is a great institution in Russia. Provisions are not to be
had at the station-houses, but we always found a samovar
and we were generally able to procure milk. The samovar
is a brass urn, with a charcoal fire in a tube in the centre,
and boils water in a few minutes. We found that about
a dozen words of Russ sufficed to pull us through very
comfortably. Arrived at a station, we generally allowed
the station-master to have the first say. As soon as a con-
venient opportunity occurred we interposed, " tre loshed say
chass" which being interpreted means " three horses imme-
diately." We then produced some rouble notes, and asked,
" scoko" how much ? The station-master would again begin
to talk Russ. We offe'red the amount due as appeared
from the list of stations which had been provided for us by
M. Verakin at Vologda. This proving satisfactory, we pro-
ceeded to pay the yemschik his backsheesh. The station-
master once more began to talk volubly in Russ. We
waited until he had done, and then asked innocently,
"fameelye F" The station-master nodded his head and said,
t( da da " (yes). We then said, " Brown Seebohm Angliski
Vologda nah Archangelsk." After the changes had been
rung upon our names, it generally ended in our having to
copy them upon a piece of paper for the station-master to
write in his book; and the new yemschik having by this
time got his team in order, we settled ourselves down again,
cried " kharashaw ! " all right ! and started off. With slight
variations this course was repeated at each station. Our

12 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. n.

horses were yoked in divers ways : of course one was always
in the shafts. The other two were sometimes yoked one at
each side of the shaft-horse ; sometimes one on the near side,
and the other in front ; sometimes side by side in front of the
shaft-horse ; and sometimes all three were in single file. The
roads in the Archangel province, where the snow-plough was
used regularly, were generally very good. In the province of
Vologda, where the snow-plough seemed to be unknown, the
roads were at least twice as bad as the imagination of an
Englishman could possibly conceive. On the good roads the
sensation of travelling was very pleasant, not unlike that in a
railway carriage. On the bad roads our sensations were
something like what Sancho Panza's must have been when
he was tossed in the blanket. Our luggage was tightly
packed with hay, and ourselves in fur, else both would have
suffered severely. At first we expected to be upset at each
lurch, and took for granted our sledge would be battered to
pieces long before the six hundred miles to Archangel were
completed, but, by degrees we began to feel reassured. The
outriggers of our sledge were so contrived that the seat might
approach, but not quite reach, the perpendicular ; and after
we had broken a shaft once or twice, and seen the cool
businesslike way in which our yemschik brought out his axe,
cut down a birch-tree and fashioned a new shaft, we began
to contemplate the possibility of the entire dissolution of
our sledge with equanimity. The weather was very change-
able; sometimes the thermometer was barely at freezing
point, sometimes we had a sort of November fog, and occa-
sionally a snowstorm, but nearly half the time it was clear

CHAP. ii. SLEDGING. 13

and cold with brilliant sunshine. The last night and day it
was intensely cold, from 2° to 4° below zero. There was a
considerable amount of traffic on the roads, and we frequently
met long lines of sledges laden with hides, tar barrels, frozen
sides of beef, hay, flax, &c. Many peasants were sledging
about from place to place, but we saw very few travellers
with government horses. The country was covered with
about two feet of snow. It was rarely flat, at first a sort of
open rolling prairie land with plenty of timber and well
studded with villages. Afterwards it became more hilly and
almost entirely covered with forest. In many cases the road
followed the course of a river, frequently crossing it and
often continuing for some miles on its frozen surface. The
track was then marked out with small fir-trees stuck into
the snow at intervals. During the whole journey we met
only one person who could speak either English, French,
or German. This was at Slavodka, where we bought some
fancy bread and Kussian butter from a German baker, from
Hesse Cassel. Jackdaws and hooded crows were the com-
monest birds in the open country, feeding for the most part
upon the droppings of the horses on the roads. They were
in splendid plumage and wonderfully clean. Many of the
jackdaws had an almost white ring round the neck and would
doubtless be the Corvus collaris of some authors, but, so far as
we were able to see, this cannot be considered as a good
species. We frequently saw almost every intermediate
variety in the same flock. During the first few days we
noticed many colonies of nests in the plantations, but whether
these would be tenanted by rooks later on in the season, or

14 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. n.

whether the hooded crow breeds in colonies in this country,
we were not able to ascertain. We occasionally saw ravens
and magpies, the latter becoming more common as we
travelled farther north. In the opener country we frequently
spied small flocks of yellow-hammers on the roads, and now
and then a pair of bullfinches. In driving through the forest
we occasionally caught sight of a crossbill, pine grosbeak,
marsh tit, jay, or great spotted woodpecker. On one occasion
we had an excellent opportunity of watching a small covey
of willow grouse, almost as pure white as the snow upon
which they were running. In the villages sparrows were
common enough. At Vologda, we are under the impression
that they were all the house sparrow. In the villages through
which we passed after the first day they were certainly all
tree sparrows. Upon our arrival at Archangel we were most
hospitably entertained by the British Consul, Charles Birse,
Esq. We were delighted once more to sit down to a good
dinner, to enjoy the luxury of a Kussian bath after our
long journey, and have a good night's rest in a comfortable
bed.

SAMOYEDE KNIVES.

LITTLE STINT.

CHAPTEK III.

The white city Archangel — Decline of its commerce — Cheapness of living — Peter
Kotzoff — Father Inokentia — Samoyede vocabulary — Their sledges — Their ap-
pearance — Samoyede names of birds — Their national songs — Election of their
chiefs — Their ignorance of doctors or medicinal plants — Piottuch — Birds — The
weather — Hasty departure from Archangel.

WE spent nineteen days in Archangel completing the pre-
parations for our journey, and picking up what information
we could respecting the great river Petchora, and the routes
thither. Everybody looked upon our expedition as a most
formidable undertaking, but all were anxious to give us every
assistance in their power. There is an excellent German
club in Archangel, and we dropped a few roubles in practising

16 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. in.

crassnum pa lielemo and lielum pa crassnemo* with billiard
balls large enough for Hercules to have played with; Arch-
angel must have been christened in winter, indeed the odds
are at least seven to five that such was the case. Most of
the houses are painted white, the streets were white, the
Dvina was white, and as far as the eye could reach the whole
country was white. The principal street, the Troiski Prospect,
is a long straight road flanked with low houses, separated by
gardens. All the houses are constructed of wood, except in
the centre of the town, where many of them are plastered
bricks. The population is said to be from fifteen to seventeen
thousand in winter, increasing in summer to about half as
many more. Archangel seems to be declining in importance
as a commercial centre, doubtless in consequence of its isola-
tion from the railway system of Russia. The number of
large firms does not increase, and there are now only three
export houses of importance. The chances of commercial
success are consequently small, and most of the young men
who can afford it leave the city. The cost of living is small.
House rent is very cheap, and provisions equally so. For
example, best joints of beef can be bought in winter for 3d.
per lb., in summer at 3%d. White bread costs 4%d. per lb.,
but brown bread can be had for %d. Butter is 7^d. per lb.
Milk (unskimmed) Id. per quart, and cream 3%d. per pint.
Game is ridiculously cheap; capercailzie, l\d. each in autumn,
Is. Id. each in winter ; hazel grouse ^\d. per brace in autumn,
L in winter; hares 3d. each, and salmon 9d> to Is. 3d.

* Red upon white, and white upon red.

CHAP. in. FATHER INOKENTIA. 17

per lb. In spite of the long and severe winters, the price of
fuel is not a very important item. Wood, sufficient to serve
a small family for a year, costs about 10Z.

For some days we sat in commission, examining witnesses
on the Petchora, the British Consul kindly acting as inter-
preter for us. We got the best information from Peter
Kotzoff, a Eussian pilot, who showed us a chronometer which
was presented to him by the British Government for assisting
in the rescue of the crew of the Elizabeth, which was wrecked
at the mouth of the Petchora. He was for some years a
pilot on the great river, and acted as guide to Count Wilczec
on his return journey overland from the Austrian-Hun-
garian Arctic Expedition. Another interesting acquaintance
which we made was that of Father Inokentia, the present
archpriest of Archangel. He lived seventeen years in the
Petchora, principally east of Ishma. He was sent out by
the Eussian Government as a missionary amongst the Sanio-
yedes, to convert them from their so-called idolatrous faith to
the Greek Church. He told us that he remembered meeting
with Schrehck, and that Castren stopped some time at his
house, at Kolva, on the river Ussa. He left the Petchora,
in 1847 so that his information was somewhat out of date.
Father Inokentia seemed to be a jolly fat friar of the old
•school, and was very kind and patient in answering our
numerous questions. How far he succeeded in his mission
it is difficult to say. Most of the Saruoyedes on the west
side of the Ural now profess to belong to the Greek Church,
but we were repeatedly informed that many of them still
secretly retain their old elie bfs, and continue to practise

i8 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. in.

their ancient rites. We went through most of the Samoyede
vocabulary given in Eae's ' Land of the North Wind,' and
found it to be on the whole correct. No doubt in districts
so widely separated as the Kanin peninsula, and the valley
of the Ussa, considerable differences of dialect must be ex-
pected. But perhaps the most interesting information which
we obtained respecting this curious race of people, was that
which we got from the Samoyedes themselves. We got our
first glimpse of them at St. Petersburg, where we found a
single choom erected on the ice of the Neva. These were
probably poor Samoyedes, owning only a few reindeer, and
earning a scanty living during the long winter by selling
various articles made from the skins and horns of reindeer,
and picking up a few kopecks by giving curious strangers
a ride in their national sledges.

Near the villages round Archangel there were several
Samoyede choom s. Two or more families were wintering
about fifteen versts from Archangel, and came almost every
day in their sledges to the town. On one of our shooting
excursions we chartered a couple of these sledges to take us
to an island on the Dvina, and thoroughly enjoyed this
novel mode of travelling. The reindeer were very tractable,
and we skimmed over the surface of the snow at a rapid pace.
We had long conversations with several Samoyedes, the
Consul of course, acting as interpreter, and we invited them
to the Consul's house, where they gave us freely all the
information they could respecting themselves and the tradi-
tions of their race. They spoke Kussian well and were by
no means devoid of intelligence. They were all small men,

CHAP. in. SAMOYEDES. 19

with dark straight hair, thin moustache and beard, and little
or no whiskers. They wore their hair hanging over the fore-
head, like a south country English peasant. Their features
were irregular, wide flat noses, high cheek-bones, and thick
lips. The under jaw was coarse and heavy, the eyes brown,
small, and skewed like those of the Chinese, and not unfre-
quently sore. They had small hands and feet, and wide
round heads, with sallow complexions. We took some of
them to the museum, where they recognised many of the
stuffed birds, and tried to describe their habits and imitate
their notes. They gave us the following Samoyede names
of birds in the Petchora district :—

Sandpiper .. .. .. .. Suitar.

Willow Grouse . . . . . . Hond-jy'.

Swan .. .. .. .. Chouari.

Goose .. .. .. .. Yebtaw.

Black Goose . . . . . . Parden Yebtaw.

They told us there were two species of swans in the
Petchora, the larger one common and breeding there, the
smaller one rare, and appearing only in autumn. They
represented the Snowy owl as found on the " tundra," * but
did not recognise the Lapp or Ural owls. We found later
on, that these statements were substantially correct. On
one occasion the Samoyedes favoured us with some of their
national songs, a monotonous chant which reminded me
very much of the songs of the peasants of the Parnassus.
One, which was translated for us, was a sort of Ossianic ditty,
relating how the singer intended to make a journey with

Peat-moss. See page 55.

20 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. in.

reindeer, how he would select the four fleetest bull reindeer
from his herd, how he would always be at the head of the
party, how he would get plenty of vodka, how he would barter
his skins, and how he would take care not to be cheated
in the transaction. One of the Samoyedes told us that they
have a chief, residing in the Ural, who is answerable to
the Emperor for the annual tribute, and that at his death
his son succeeds him, unless he is thought not worthy to
be made king. In this case another chief is elected by
ballot, by putting pieces of wood into a " pimii" or boot.
It is right to note, however, that other Samoyedes whom
we questioned had never heard of this Ural chief. The
Samoyedes have no doctors, and use no medicinal plants,
nor do they employ any other medicines, unless the out-
ward application of goose or swan fat for frost bites may
rank as such.

At Archangel we were fortunate enough to secure the
services of M. Piottuch, a Polish exile, whom we engaged
to go with us to the land of the Samoyedes in the double
capacity of interpreter and bird-skinner. He spoke Eussian
and bad French, and since Alston and Harvie-Brown's visit to
Archangel in 1872, he had spent a considerable part of his
leisure time in shooting and skinning birds. Accompanied
by Piottuch we made several excursions on snow shoes into
the neighbouring woods, but saw remarkably few birds.
Archangel contains a great number of sparrows; most of
the farmyards abounded with them. Once or twice we
identified a tree sparrow, but by far the greater number were
the common house sparrow, many of the males being in

CHAP. in. INTENSE COLD.

21

splendid plumage. The next commonest bird was certainly
the hooded crow. They were remarkably tame. In the
market we sometimes saw half-a-dozen perched at the same
time on the horses' backs, and we could almost kick them
in the streets. They are the scavengers of Archangel.
Pigeons were also common, now wild, but probably once
domesticated. They look like rock-doves, a blue-grey, with
darker head and shoulders, two black bars on the wing, and
a white rump ; but in some the latter characteristic is want-
ing. These pigeons are never molested, and are evidently
held to be semi-sacred, like those in the Piazza di San
Marco in Venice, or in the court of the Bayezidieh mosque
in Stamboul. Jackdaws, ravens, and magpies were frequently
seen. In the woods we found the mealy redpole, the
marsh tit, an occasional bullfinch, a pair of lesser spotted
woodpeckers, and a solitary hawfinch. Some white-winged
crossbills and waxwings were brought alive into the town,
but the peasant who had the waxwings asked eight roubles
a pair, so, of course, we did not buy them. We were told
that these birds were common near Archangel until towards
the end of November, when they disappear as the weather
becomes more severe.

During our stay in Archangel we had considerable changes
in the weather. Soon after our arrival it was very cold, and
on one or two occasions we noticed the thermometer as low
as 27° below zero. If the weather was windy we felt the
cold keenly, but at the lowest point there was not a breath
of wind, and wrapped up in our furs we suffered from nothing
but an attack of icicles on the moustache. Occasionally we

22

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. III.

had slight snowstorms, but brilliant sunshine was the rule,
and we found the clear, dry air most invigorating. After
April had set in the weather became more cloudy, and the
thermometer once registered 37° in the shade. No signs of
frost having been visible by the 6th, we made hot haste to
be off before our winter road should break up, taking leave
of our kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Birse, with great regret. It
has rarely been our lot to be received with such genuine
hospitality as was shown us by this estimable gentleman and
his lady.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER

UST-ZYLMA.

CHAPTER IV.

Bad roads — Postal service in winter aiid summer — Changeable weather — Scenery
— Pinega and Kuloi rivers — Snow plains — The forests — Birds — Samoyedes —
Mezen — Polish exile — Snow-Buntings — How caught — Jackdaws — We leave
Mezen — The weather — Scenery — The Mezen river — The Pizhma — The roads —
Piottuch's accident — The Via diabolica — Bolshanivagorskia — Break up of the
road — Polish prejudices — The villages — Curiosity of the peasants — Greek
crosses — Love of ornament — Employment and amusements — Samoyedes — Birds
— Umskia — First view of the Petchora — Arrival at Ust-Zylma.

THE journey from Archangel to Ust-Zylma on the Petchora
is between seven and eight hundred English miles. There
are about forty stations, the distance between each being
somewhat greater than that on our previous journey. Had
we left Archangel a fortnight earlier, before the sun was

24 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

powerful enough to soften the surface of the snow, we might
have accomplished the journey in much shorter time. As
it was, we took three clays and three nights to reach Mezen.
We stopped one day and two nights in this, the frontier town
of Siberia in Europe ; and the remainder of the journey
occupied five days and four nights. A fortnight later the
snow became impassable, the winter road was broken up, the
horses at the stations in the uninhabited portions of the
country, a distance of 250 versts, were sent home, and for
two months the valley of the Petchora was as effectually cut
off from all communication with civilised Europe as if it
had been in the moon. The last 150 miles had become a
series of uninhabited, impassable swamps, across which no
letter, no messenger, no telegram, ever came. The postal
service was suspended until the floods in the river, caused
by the sudden melting of the snow, had sufficiently subsided
to make it possible to row against stream. The summer
route from Mezen to Ust-Zylma is up the Mezen river to its
junction with the Peza, up that river to its source, across
the watershed, a porterage of sixteen versts, by horses, to
the source of the Zylma, and then down that river to the
Petchora.

We left Archangel on a Tuesday evening, in two sledges
or " pavoskas ;" Harvie-Brown and I, with part of the
luggage in one, drawn by three horses, and Piottuch, with
the remainder of the luggage, in the other, drawn by two
horses. That night and the whole of the following day were
warm, the thermometer standing at 44° in the shade. In
the sun it once went up to 70°. The wind was south-west,

CHAP. iv. SLEDGING. 25

and in our inexperience we began to fear that summer would
be upon us before we reached the Fetch ora. Our progress
was slow, and at this time, including stoppages, we did not
average much more than seven miles an hour. On Wednes-
day night we had a smart frost, and began to congratulate
each other on the chance of our progress being more rapid.
But we soon found that we were out of the frying-pan into
the tire. The great traffic to and from the fair at Pinega
had worn a deep rut for the horses' feet in the track, and
one runner of our sledge would persist in running in it,
which threw the sledge so much out of the level that the
outrigger or projecting spar, which is necessary to prevent
the sledge from being upset every five minutes, was con-
tinually ploughing into the snow which formed a bank on
each side of the road. As long as the snow was soft it
was of little consequence, but when the crust was hardened
by an hour or two of frost, the outrigger of the sledge went
" scrunch " into it with a sound almost like that of a man turn-
ing wood in a lathe, and our progress was as much impeded
by this unwelcome brake as it had been by the giving way
of the snow under the horses' feet. On Thursday afternoon
the sun was again hot, but fortunately it froze again at night.
Friday was dull all day, with a slight thaw, and we reached
Mezen at 4 P.M. and found the roofs dripping.

The scenery on the route was much more varied than we
had expected to find it. Most of the way we sledged through
the forests, a wide space being cleared on each side of the
track ; but sometimes the trees came close up to the road,
which was hilly and winding, and we seemed to be lost in

26 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

a dense wood. Perhaps the most picturesque part of the
journey was whilst we were ascending the Pinega river and
descending the Kuloi, which we repeatedly enjoyed for some
versts at a time. The Pinega river is very broad, with what
looked like cliffs of oolite on each side, surmounted by pine
forests. The Kuloi river is narrower, and there are no cliffs
of any importance, the trees coming down to the edge of the
ice. When we passed the Kuloi near its source, soon after
leaving Pinega, the river was flowing through a strip of
open country. In several places it was free from ice, and on
two occasions we saw ducks swimming upon the open water.
About thirty versts before reaching Mezen we crossed an
immense plain of snow, as flat as a lake, extending east and
west as far as the eye could reach. In almost every instance
the flat plains were destitute of trees, being no doubt swamps
or marshes, too wet for timber to grow in, whilst the hills
were invariably covered with forests. We found that the
roads were always deep in the forests. Our horses had firm
footing, but the outriggers of the sledge "scrunched" un-
pleasantly. In the open plains the sides of the road were
low, any deep tracks which might have been made being no
doubt soon filled up again by the drifting snow, and we got
on at a rapid pace so long as the snow did not give way
under the horses' feet. The forests were principally spruce
fir, and very spruce these fir-trees looked, as if they had just
been combed and brushed, in striking contrast to the haggard
larches, whose leafless branches were clothed with black and
grey lichen like a suit of rags, and were torn and twisted
by the winds into wild fantastic shapes, reminding one of a

CHAP. iv. BIRDS. 27

sketch by Dore. In many places birches and Scotch fir were
common, and occasionally we saw a few willows. There were
very few birds. The hooded crow was the commonest,
principally close to the villages. Now and then we saw a
jackdaw or a raven or a pair of magpies. As we proceeded
farther east, sparrows became less plentiful, but we noticed
both species, the house and the tree sparrow. Soon after
leaving Archangel we met with a flock of snow-buntings, and
they gradually became more frequent as we nearecl Mezen,
especially on the rivers. They seemed to be slowly migrating
northwards, following the course of the rivers, where there
was always a chance of their finding some open water. Not
far from Pinega we got out of the sledge to chase a pair of
great spotted woodpeckers, and succeeded in shooting the
female. We also saw a pair of Siberian jays, but, not being
provided with snow shoes, we found it was no use attempting
to follow the birds into the forests through the deep snow.
Soon after leaving Pinega we saw a bird sitting on a cliff,
and after a short chase shot it, and found it to be a common
crossbill, a bird which, curiously enough, we did not meet
with afterwards. A stage or two before reaching Mezen, we
saw a second pair of Siberian jays, and surprised a fine male
capercailzie not far from the road.

At Pinega we found a party of Samoyedes from Kanin,
with about twenty sledges, and we passed a larger party
about halfway to Mezen. We met with no difficulties.
Once or twice, on our arrival at a station during the night,
we were told that there were no horses to be had, that
they were all out ; but on the presentation of the " Crown

28 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

Padarozhnas," with which General Timarsheff (the Minister
of the Interior at St. Petersburg) had kindly provided us,
horses were forthcoming at once. We paid for five horses on
one occasion when we had only four, and at Pinega the station-
master tried to make us take six, but our obstinate refusal to
do so, lest it should become a precedent in future, prevailed.

We reached Mezen on the 10th of April, and spent an
interesting day in this frontier town of Siberia in Europe.
The Ispravnik, to whom we had letters from the Governor
of Archangel, called upon us and invited us to take tea at
his house. He spoke a smattering of French, but had asked
a Polish exile of the name of Bronza to meet us. Mr. Bronza
spoke excellent German, and we endeavoured to get some
information from him about the Samoyedes ; but he was so
full of his own grievances, and so utterly without interest in
Russia and everything Kussian, that we soon gave it up
in despair. Poland is evidently the Ireland of Kussia. Both
the Irish and the Poles seem crazy on the subject of home-
rule, and in many other points show a similarity of tempera-
ment. They are both hot-blooded races, endowed with a
wonderful sense of humour, and an intolerable tolerance of
dirt, disorder, and bad management generally.

At Mezen we were much interested in watching a large
flock of snow-buntings. Their favourite resort was the steep
bank of the river, where they found abundance of food in the
manure which was thrown away. In a country where there
is abundance of grass in summer, and very little corn is
cultivated, and where the cattle have to be stall-fed for
seven or eight months out of the twelve, manure apparently

CHAP. iv. SNOW-BUNTINGS. 29

possesses very little value, and hundreds of cartloads are
annually deposited on the steep banks of the river, where no
doubt it is washed away when the river rises with the floods
caused by the sudden melting of the snow in May. The
snow-buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in
the ice on the river, where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained
their supply of water. In both places the boys of the village
had set white horsehair snares, and seemed to be very
successful in their sport. At this time of the year these
birds are fat and are excellent eating. We were told that
in a fortnight they would be here in much greater numbers,
and would be sold for a rouble the hundred, or even less.
None of the birds we got were in full summer plumage, yet
they looked extremely handsome as they ran along the snow
like a wagtail or a dotterel, or fluttered from place to place
with a somewhat scattered, butterfly kind of flight. We
occasionally saw them hop, but they generally preferred to
run. The most interesting fact which we observed was that

O

the snow-bunting occasionally perches in trees. We saw
two in the forest, one of which perched in a spruce fir.

We found jackdaws very numerous at Mezen, but Piottuch
told us that it is only during the last four or five years that
this bird has been seen in this neighbourhood. He said that
it is now a resident there. Piottuch in the days of his exile
lived some years at Mezen, and had a considerable circle of
acquaintance there, who made merry on the occasion of his
revisiting them.

We left Mezen on Sunday morning at nine, glad to get
away, as Piottuch's old friends were too many for him, and far

30 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

too hospitable ; and he was drinking more champagne than
we thought prudent. During the last four-and-twenty hours
we had had violent wind and snowstorms, but the morning
had cleared up, the sun shone brilliantly and it was not cold.
But at night snow came on again and continued till Wednes-
day evening, when the weather suddenly cleared up again ;
and the thermometer fell from freezing-point to zero. During
the three days, about four inches of snow had been added to
the couple of feet already on the ground. Travelling during
even a slight snowstorm is by no means so pleasant as when
the sun shines on a mild day ; but travelling in a sledge with
the thermometer at zero is decidedly unpleasant, even with
brilliant sunshine and no wind. If you expose your face to
the air your nose is in danger, then the icicles that form
continually upon your moustache are anything but comfort-
able ; and the condensation of your breath upon your neck
wrappings is always irritating ; and if you subside altogether
into your furs the sense of semi-suffocation is almost as bad.
On the whole, however, we did not suffer so much from the
cold as we expected.

The scenery on this journey was more varied than any we
had previously met with. We alternated between forest,
river, and open plain. The Mezen is a fine river, half a mile
or more wide, with steep banks of what looked like red chalk
about a hundred feet high, clothed with forest to the edge,
which is continually crumbling away and letting the pine-
trees slip into the water. At intervals, and often with
remarkable regularity, the cliffs were cut away down to
the water's edge, probably by small temporary rivulets

CHAP. iv. PIOTTUCH'S DISASTER. 31

born of the melting snow. The Pizhma is a much smaller
river, not half the size of the Mezen, and without rocky
cliffs on the banks. There are two Pizhmas, both of
which we travelled on. Both rise in the lake of Jam, the
Petchorski Pizhma flowing north-east into the Zylma just
before that river enters the Petchora, and the Mezenski
Pizhma flowing south west into the Mezen. On the rivers
the roads were always good, except in one part of the
Mezenski Pizhma where the river is very narrow and the
current was very strong. In one place we almost shuddered to
see open water rushing along within nine feet of the sledge.
Not long afterwards we stuck fast, and had to get out of the
sledge on the snow in the middle of the river. It was nearly
midnight and very cloudy. Piottuch with his lighter sledge
had got safely over the dangerous part and stood grinning
at us, as the yemschiks hacked the frozen snow off the
runners of our sledge with their axes ; and having added
his two horses to our team, placed two little fir-trees across
the path and flogged the horses until they dragged the
machine through the snow and water on to firm ground.
We had our revenge, however, shortly afterwards. A few
stations farther on Piottuch's sledge came to grief, one of the
runners breaking completely in two in the front. He was
some distance in advance of our sledge, and when we over-
took him at the station he came to us with a very long face
to tell us of the " tres mat chose." We soon set him upon
his legs again. We bought a peasant's sledge for a rouble
and a half, took off the sides, and removing the runners
from the broken sledge lashed the two together with a strong

32 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

cord. Piottuch started in high glee again, assuring us that
his sledge was " leaucoup plus Ion " than ours. The effect of
the alteration was, however, to raise the level of his out-
riggers a few inches, which made all the difference between
safety and danger. He was soon fast asleep as usual, for he
had not yet quite slept off his Mezen champagne, when his
sledge gave a greater lurch than it was wont to do and cap-
sized, waking him with a shower of portmanteaus about his
ears ; and he was dragged out of the deep snow by the
yemschik amidst roars of laughter on our part.

As before, we found the roads in the open plain always
good. These plains were a dead flat, with a tree or two
here and there. The rut worn by the horses' feet was not
deep, and the path was almost level with the side. We
glided along smoothly and luxuriously. The roads in the
forest were bad beyond all conception. The banks were
high, and were always in the way of the outriggers, which
" scrunched " against them with a most irritating sound. Both
laterally and vertically they were as winding as a snake.
Sometimes our sledge would be on the top of a steep hill,
our first horse in the valley, and our third horse on the top
of the next hill. The motion was like that of a boat in a
chopping sea, and the sledge banged about from pillar to
post to such an extent that we scarcely felt the want of
exercise. The Kussian forest road is not a via mala, it is a
via didboUea.

At Bolshanivagorskia upon entering the station-house we
found the room occupied by a party, and the samovar in full
operation. Fancying that some of the party looked English, I

CHAP. iv. HERR ROSENTHAL. 33

inquired if any of them spoke German, and the least Eussian-
looking gentleman among them replied that he did. I in-
formed him that we were Englishmen, travelling from London
to the Petchora, and I added that we were glad to find some
one on the route with whom we could converse. I then
asked him if he and his party were also travelling. He
replied that they were stationed there for some time. I
then asked if his name was Kosenthal. He said it was,
and a hearty laugh followed at the success of my guess.
We enjoyed his astonishment for some time, and then
explained that we had been told by the Ispravnik at Mezen
that there was only one man in the district who could speak
German, the forest engineer, Herr Kosenthal. We spent
an hour pleasantly together. .Like every one we met who
had not been to the Petchora, he exaggerated the dangers
and difficulties of the journey. He was engaged in measuring
the timber felled on Kusanoffs concession on behalf of the
Eussian Government, who receive so much per tree according
to the quantity of available wood in it.

On the other hand, it is possible that we may have under-
estimated the dangers and difficulties of our journey, seeing
we had the good luck to pull through them so well. The
roads were certainly giving way, and it may have been a
happy accident in our favour that the weather changed again
when it did. On one occasion the crust of snpw not being
firm enough to support the horses, they all three suddenly
sank up to their bellies. Of course they were utterly help-
less. We feared for a moment that our journey had suddenly
come to an end, and that we had hopelessly stuck fast. WTe

D

34 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv.

alighted from the sledge which had not sunk in the snow.
The two yemschiks set to work in good earnest, and we
doffed our malitzas and followed suit. The horses were
unharnessed, and we soon succeeded in making them struggle
out on to firm ground. We had no difficulty in pushing the
sledge after them, and were soon ready to start again. All
this time Piottuch stood calmly by, never offering for a
moment to render us the smallest assistance. The Eussians
we always found equal to any emergency, and ready to lend
a helping hand on such occasions as an Englishman would.
The Poles, on the contrary, seem to be a helpless, shiftless
race of people, with a contemptible prejudice against manual
labour. A similar accident did not happen again. We had
many a stumble, but no irretrievable fall. Our horses were
sure-footed and wonderfully plucky, and we seldom had a
really bad animal. We started with five horses for the
two sledges, which we reduced to four the latter half of the
journey, and on one or more occasions we accomplished a
stage satisfactorily with only three. The country is very
thinly populated. After leaving Mezen the villages were
small, and during the last 150 miles there were no villages at
all, only a single station-house, where a change of horses
could be obtained, and which would shortly be deserted
altogether for the summer months. As we were the first
Englishmen who had travelled on this road during the life-
time of any of the villagers, our appearance naturally excited
great curiosity, and when we stopped at a station in the vil-
lage to change horses, a crowd quickly gathered round the
sledges. We found the peasants very inquisitive, asking the

CHAP. iv. THE PEASANTRY. 35

English names of various articles. They were extremely
good-natured, enjoyed a broad joke, laughed heartily at our
pigeon-Kuss, and were, so far as we could judge, perfectly
honest. We left our sledges with all our luggage, wraps,
&c., unprotected, sometimes for an hour, at the station where
we stopped for a meal, and on no occasion had anything been
stolen. In the villages on this part of the journey we noticed
a number of crosses, generally one or two at the entrance,
and one near the centre of the village. They were made of
wood, and were about ten feet high, the oidinary Greek
double cross, with an oblique foot-bar, and most of them were
protected by a wooden roof to keep off the snow. Both the
roof and the cross itself were, as a rule, elaborately carved,
and the whole face of the cross was covered with inscriptions
(no doubt Slavonic) in about three-inch letters. Sometimes
in the poorer villages the crosses were not carved, and the
inscription and ornamentation were simply painted upon the
wood, generally in various colours. The Eussian peasantry
in Siberia in Europe seem to be fond of ornamentation.
The majority of the houses are built with the gable end
to the street, and in the centre of the gable is a window,
opening on to a balcony. This balcony, the framework of
the windows, the ends of the rain-gutters, and the ends of the
ridge of the roof, were often elaborately carved and fretted,
and sometimes painted in gay colours. In nearly all the
villages we noticed a conspicuous arrangement of railings for
the drying of flax, hay, or corn. In the station-houses we
found the men, and sometimes the women, engaged in spin-
ning flax, making nets, or weaving coarse linen. In the

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. IV.

station, however, where there was no village, a draught-board
of very rude construction evidently served to while away the
long winter evenings. Several times during the journey we
saw Samoyedes, or Syrian i, sledging along with their rein-
deer, and in many places the snow was ploughed up some
distance from the road, showing that the reindeer had been
seeking for food. As we neared Ust-Zylma we passed several
of the chooms, or reindeer-skin tents, of these curious people
by the roadside. During the greater part of the journey
few birds were to be seen. In the villages magpies were the
commonest birds, and occasionally we saw a few pigeons,
hooded crows, and tree-sparrows. On the banks of the river
flocks of snow-buntings were common. In the forests we saw
a few capercailzie.

At Umskia, where we were fortunately detained six hours
for want of horses, there was an abundant supply of birds.
This station is a solitary house on the banks of the
Petchorski Pizhma, about fifty-four versts from Ust-Zylma.
The great attraction for birds in this place was doubtless
the hole in the ice of the river, which had to be kept open
to supply the station with water, and the dung which the
horses dropped during the few hours they fed and rested out-
side the station. We shot five Siberian jays,* and had

' * The Siberian jay (Perisoreus in-
faustus, Linn.) has not been met with
in the British Islands. It is a resident
bird even in the coldest districts which
it inhabits, extending across the eastern
hemisphere from the Arctic circle in
Scandinavia, as far south as latitude
60°. Eastwards it ranges as far as
Kamtchatka, and in the valley of the

Yenesay extends southwards to lati-
tude 50°. In the valley of the Pet-
chora we did not observe it farther
north than latitude 66°. After the
autumn moult these birds seem to be
half feathers; light fluffy feathers
only one remove from down, which
must render them capable of resisting
any amount of qold.

CHAP. iv. SIBERIAN JAY. 37

some opportunity of watching their habits. They were not
at all shy, and were fond of perching upon or clinging to
the trunks of the pines, and sometimes we saw them run up
the stems like a woodpecker. The song was by no means
unmusical, a low warble like that of the starling, but not so
harsh. These birds are early breeders, and the song is
probably discontinued soon after incubation has begun, as
we did not hear it afterwards, though we frequently came
across the birds. Out of the five birds which we shot only
one proved to be a female, with the ovary very small.
There were a few snow-buntings always to be seen, but we
did not think it worth while wasting powder and shot upon
them, as we had selected a score of handsome birds out of a
lot brought to one of the stations by a peasant who had
snared them. We could have bought almost any quantity
alive or dead at ten kopecks the score. I shot one by acci-
dent as it was feeding under a larch-tree in company with
a Siberian jay, a couple of bullfinches, and half-a-dozen
other snow-buntings, and a few red poles. Harvie-Brown
shot another as it sat perched upon the branch of a larch,
in order to be able to produce the skin of a bird shot
perching, as the fact that they do ever perch in trees has
been disputed. We had abundant opportunity of seeing
these birds in trees. We saw as many as three or four in
one tree at the same time, and frequently observed them
fly from one tree to another. We saw plenty of bull-
finches,* and shot five males in brilliant plumage. They

* The Northern bullfinch (Pyrrhula
rubicilla, Pallas) differs from the com-
mon bullfinch in being somewhat larger,

in having a stouter bill, and in having
the red of the und,er parts more scarlet
in colour. It is not known to have

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. IV.

were all in pairs. We fancied that the call note of these
bullfinches differed from that of our bird. Speaking from
memory it seemed to us to be louder and harsher, by no
means so plaintive, and not badly represented by the word
<kak.'

After leaving Umskia we looked anxiously out for the
first glimpse of the distant Petchora, and it was not long
before we crossed a low range of hills, from the ridge of
which we had a view of the mighty river. As we sledged
down the Zylma, and finally reached its junction with the
Petchora, the vastness of this river impressed us beyond all
our expectations. We were 300 miles from its mouth, and
to our left the huge flood stretched away in a broad white
stream as far as the eye could reach, and fifteen times as
wide as the Thames at Hammersmith Bridge. On the oppo-
site bank, a mile and a half off, we could discern the churches
and houses of Ust-Zylma, round which the river swept to
our right. Piottuch had arrived at the town some hours
before us, and we found comfortable apartments in the house
of a Knssian peasant, of the name of Boulegan, where we
were visited by M. Znaminski, the PreestafT of Ust-Zylma,
and drank a toast (the success of our visit to the Petchora)
in a bottle of excellent Crimean champagne. The total
course of the mighty river covers nearly one thousand miles.

occurred in the British Islands. It
breeds in the south Arctic and north
temperate regions of Europe and Asia,
from Scandinavia eastwards as far as
the watershed of the Yenesay and the
Lena, beyond which it is represented

by a somewhat nearly allied species,
P. griseiventris (Lafr.). It winters in
South Europe and South Siberia. In
the valley of the Petchora we did not
see it farther north than latitude
65|°.

CHAP. IV.

THE PETCHORA.

39

It rises in the Urals, north of the government of Perm, not
far from the important town of Tcherdeen', which lies upon
the watershed of the Petchora and the Kah'ma. It drains
nearly the whole of the north-western slope of the Ural
Mountains, and flows almost due north, till its junction with
the Ussa; here the river is a mile wide, and the Ussa is
the larger stream of the two. The Petchora at this point
makes a bend west ; but after receiving the waters of the
Zylrna, it resumes its northward course, till it falls into the
Arctic Ocean by a number of mouths opposite the islands of
Nova Zembla.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE OLD BELIEVERS.

CHAPTER Y.

Ust-Zylma — Its streets — Its houses — Its manure — Its population — Its farms — Its
churches — Our quarters — The banks of the river — The Old Believers — Their
superstition — Their crosses — Hospitality of the officials — Shooting-parties —
Captain Arendt and Captain Engel — Snow shoes — Scarcity of birds — The snow-
bunting — Mealy redpole — Winter.

UST-ZYLMA* is a long, straggling village, lying on the
narrow strip of flat land, on the north and east bank of the
Petchora, where that river makes a sudden bend from west

* In ' Purchas his Pilgrimes/ the
narrative of the voyage of Josias Logan,
who wintered in the valley of the
Petchora in 1611, contains the follow-
ing description of this town : " Ust-
Zylma is a village of some thirtie or

fortie houses, and standeth in the
height of 66° and 30 minutes. They
have corne growing there, both barley
and rye, and their barley is passing
faire and white almost as rice."

CHAP. v. UST-ZYLMA. 4I

to north, about 300 miles from its mouth. Each homestead
is a farmhouse with outbuildings, including almost always a
bath-house. They are irregularly scattered over the ground,
sometimes at considerable distances apart, and sometimes in
clusters. There is a principal road, which meanders through
the village for perhaps two miles, with numerous side
branches, which one might by courtesy call the main street ;
but its general appearance is as if the houses had been
strewed about at random, and each peasant had been left to
make a road to his nearest neighbour as best he could.
Towards the centre of the village there is here and there a
wooden causeway, like those in Archangel. We found the
wooden trottoir all but indispensable when the thaw set in.
\Yhen we reached Ust-Zylma the streets were covered with
a thick layer of frozen manure. The yards round the houses
were in a still worse condition, and when the sun was hot it
was difficult to walk dryshod in consequence of the pools of
liquid manure, which filled every depression, in the ground,
and no doubt very frequently soaked into the wells. This
manure makes Ust-Zylma one vast dunghill, and would pro-
bably produce much disease, were it not for the fact that it
is frozen for nearly seven months out of the twelve, and is in
most years carried away soon after it thaws by the floods of
the Petchora, which generally overflows its banks, when the
snow melts all at once^with the sudden arrival of summer.
It not unfrequently happens at this season of the year that
half the village is under water, and the peasants have to
boat from house to house. All the houses are built with
this contingency in view. The bottom story is generally

42 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. v.

low, and consists of a suite of lumber rooms, where the cattle
are often housed in winter. The dwelling rooms are on the
second story, generally reached by a covered flight of stairs
outside the house, reaching from a porch below to a gallery,
which leads round the house. Upon this porch, staircase,
and gallery a good deal of skill in wood carving is often
expended. The winter is long, and the length of time during
which the cattle are stall-fed so great, and the amount of
land available for cultivation so small, that there is always a
large surplus of manure, which the peasants do not think
worth the cost of preservation. The cattle are fed princi-
pally upon hay, which is cut upon the low lands on the
other side of the Petchora. These lands are flooded every
spring, and any manure placed upon them would speedily be
washed off : nor is it needed, as the river itself is the great
fertiliser in these low-lying districts, exactly as the Nile is
in Egypt. Of course, to accumulate so much manure in
the streets, the traffic must be large. Long strings of sledges
were often to be seen drawing hay, pine logs for building,
and smaller timber for firewood. In the summer nearly
every peasant turns fisherman, and catches salmon and other
fish in the Petchora with a seine net. Neither farming nor
fishing seems to be very profitable. It is very easy to get
a living, but there is no market for surplus produce. Beef
fetches only \\d. per Ib. retail. Most articles that are worth
the cartage, such as furs, feathers, down, frozen meat, tar, &c.,
go to Pinega fair, and some are even sent as far as Nishni
Novgorod ; but the cost of transit absorbs the profit. Now
and then you meet with a merchant who has accumulated a

CHAP. v. THE CHURCHES. 43

handsome fortune ; but the peasants are on the whole poor,
and will doubtless remain so until railway communication
with Moscow is opened, or steamers run regularly from the
mouth of the Petchora, either of which projects seems at
present to be hopelessly impossible. The population of Ust-
Zylma does not probably exceed 1500 or 2000, increased in
winter by Samoyedes, who erect their chooms in the neigh-
bouring forest. When we reached Ust-Zylma, and for a
week or more afterwards, a great migration of these curious
people was going on, and we often saw a score or more of
their sledges in a day, and sometimes there would be as
many reindeer as horses to be seen in the streets.

The flat country on the banks of the Petchora, upon which
the village is built, does not extend more than a few hundred
yards. The land then rapidly rises, and these slopes are
cultivated for some way up the hillside. We found the
peasants busily employed in carting manure in sledges, and
spreading it on the snow. The monotony of the long village
is broken by three churches, one a very ancient and pictu-
resque structure, in some places rather artistically orna-
mented. This was formerly the church of the Old Believers,
but it is now too rotten for use, and a more modern-looking
building has been erected. The third church is that of the
Orthodox Greek Church. All the houses in Ust-Zylma are
of course built of wood, solid balks of timber with moss and
tar in the joints, and notched into each other at the corner,
and more or less carved and ornamented in various places.
Sometimes the slopes of the hills are relieved by a large
tree which has been left standing, and here and there is an

44 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. v.

old windmill. Beyond the cultivated ground is the forest
clothing the hilly country stretching away north, the trees
gradually dwindling in size as far as the Arctic circle, beyond
which lies the mysterious " tundra."

Our quarters in Ust-Zylma were two excellent rooms on
the second floor of the best house in the village, for which
we paid two roubles a month. No doubt we could have had
them for half the money if we had taken them for six
months. The house was built by M. Sideroff, the founder of
the Petchora Timber-trading Company, and was afterwards
sold to M. Boulegan. Our windows looked out across the
street on to the Petchora, which we calculated from two
rough trigonometrical observation* to be a mile and a half
wide. At Ust-Ussa, 200 miles higher up the great river, its
width is said to be nearly a mile. A little beyond the limits
of the village at each end, the flat land on the bank of the
river ceases, and the forest comes up to the edge of a cliff
of sand, earth, and pebbles, varying from 50 to 100 feet
high. This bank drops nearly perpendicularly on to the
mud and pebbles on the edge of the river. In some places
the pebbly strand was bare of snow, and we noticed pieces of
granite, ironstone, and limestone. Some of the latter was
full of fossil shells, and we found many pieces that looked
like madrepore and fossil coral. Soon after the high steep
bank of the river begins, the grand sweep which the Petchora
makes round the village ends, and the river stretches away
north-east for miles. The view from the top of the bank
looking up the wide white river, is very fine. The high banks,
too steep in most places for the snow to rest upon, and the

CHAP. v. THE OLD BELIEVERS. 45

dark pines on the top, form a striking contrast to the pure
white snow on the ice below, down which for many versts
may be seen the long winding line of diminutive fir-trees,
marking the road, upon which the sledges of the travelling
peasants look like black spots in the distance. It would,
perhaps, be a very difficult subject to make a fine picture of,
the effect on the eye being one of simple vastness, causing
one continually to exclaim, " What a great river ! What
a big country ! "

Most of the peasants of Ust-Zylma and the villages near
are Old Believers, people who retain a very curious form of
Christian superstition, closely allied to the Greek Church.
Castren calls them the " Raskolnicken " of Ust-Zylma. They
have not a good reputation amongst the Germans, who have
to hire labour for the timber trade on the Petchora. They
are represented as crafty and faithless, and as few of them
are employed as possible. Their chief characteristic appears
to be that they make the sign of the cross with the thumb
touching the second and third, instead of the fourth and fifth
fingers, as is the fashion of the Orthodox Church. They have
a curious prejudice against tobacco, and will not smoke it
themselves nor, if they can help it, allow other persons to
smoke in their houses. They seem to have Jewish supersti-
tions against pork and hare, neither will they use any plate,
glass, or other article from which persons not of their religion
have eaten or drunk. If you offer them vodka in your own
glass they will refuse it if they be strict Old Believers, but
we must do them the justice to say that under circumstances
of this kind many we met were superior to their superstitions.

46 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. v.

But the most extraordinary feature of their religion is that
it forbids the use of potatoes as food. They are said not to
be very diligent in their attendance at church nor to be very
much under the control of their priests, holding the doctrine
that every man should be a priest in his own house, and
should conduct divine worship there. Our host was very
exemplary in this respect when he was sober, having an
excellent religious library, and we often beard bim and his
family chanting Slavonic prayers. One of his books was a
Slavonic MS., dating about 1740, and profusely illustrated
with full-page coloured drawings, very carefully executed,
although somewhat stiff. It appeared to be the history of
some of the saints of the Greek Church. I tried very hard
to buy this book, but nothing would induce M. Boulegan to
part with it. In a corner of every Kussian room is a sacred
picture or " eekon," before which every one on entering the
room bows and crosses himself several times before speaking
to the host. Some . of these pictures are very old, being
handed down from generation to generation, and sometimes
there is quite a collection of these " eekona," varied with brass
and enamel triptychs of various ages and merit. Every
peasant wears a silver or bronze cross. Some of these are of
exquisitely delicate workmanship, frequently ornamented
with enamel, and occasionally set with jewels. On the back
of many of these crosses are elaborate Slavonic inscriptions.
A wonderful fertility of resource is found in the designs of
these crosses, which are always chaste and artistic, never
florid in the ornamentation or wanting in harmony of parts.
The great centre of all this religious art is, we were informed,

CHAP. v. M. ZNAMINSKI.

47

the monastery of Onega, on the south shore of the White
Sea.

A peculiarity which we were told marked the Old Believers
of Ust-Zylma is a habit which the women have of uttering
cries, not loud but frequently repeated. This habit or disease
is called " equarter," and is brought on immediately by the
smell of tobacco smoke. Whether the cry is voluntary, and
is intended as a mark of disapproval, or as an exorcism
against evil influences, or whether it be a form of hysteria
allied to St. Vitus's dance, we were not able to ascertain.

The officials at Ust-Zylma received us with the greatest
hospitality. In addition to the letters with which the Gover-
nor of Archangel had provided us, it so happened that
Piottuch was an old friend of M. Znaminski, the Preestaff,
or highest military officer. He had made his acquaintance
some years ago, in the days of his exile in Mezen, and both
being fond of a day's sport, they had fraternised as sportsmen
ought to do. M. Sakeroff, the postmaster, was the other
"swell chasseur" of Ust-Zylma, and these gentlemen were
kind enough to plan several shooting-parties for our benefit.
M. Znaminski was a stout handsome man, very dignified in his
manners, but active in the field, and we were under very great
obligations to him for his uniform kindness and hospitality
to us. Another official who, as well as his charming wife,
was most hospitable to us was the Public Prosecutor, M.
Miranoif, the " Schliidevatel " as Captain Engel always called
him. We were also most kindly entertained by the " Mara-
voi," who appeared to be a gentleman of considerable educa-
tion. Unfortunately none of these gentlemen spoke either

48 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. v.

English, French, or German, so that our communication with
them was necessarily very limited. Interpreting was certainly
not Piottuch's forte. Any information we got through him
was so largely mixed with his own ideas and opinions, that
we soon ceased to attach much value to it, besides which his
bad French was often as difficult to understand as the original
Euss.

We got a great deal of information respecting the country
and its inhabitants from two gentlemen in the employ of
tbe Petchora Timber-trading Company, Captain Arendt, the
manager or " Provalychik " in the Petchora, residing pro
tern, at Ust-Zylma, and Captain Engel, the commander of
the steamer belonging to the company, which was then lying
in winter quarters at Habariki, about twenty-seven miles
down the river. These gentlemen called upon us the day
after our arrival, and we were indebted to both of them for
innumerable acts of kindness.

One of our first purchases on our arrival at Ust-Zylma was
a couple of pairs of snow-shoes, without which it is impossible
to travel on the snow. No one can form the slightest idea
how utterly helpless one is without snow-shoes when there is
scarcely three feet of snow on the ground. To travel a mile
would probably be a hard day's work, completely knocking
one up. On snow-shoes we got along comfortably, at the
rate of three miles an hour, and we soon became tolerably
at home on them. They were about seven feet long and six
inches wide, made of birch wood, and covered underneath
with reindeer skin, with the hair pointing behind. This is
absolutely necessary to enable one to ascend a hill, the hair

CHAP. V.

SNOW-SHOES.

preventing effectually any sliding backwards. The great
difficulty with which we had to contend at first was to avoid
treading on our own toes, but with a little practice we learnt
to keep our shoes parallel. In going down hill we had to
be careful lest our speed should increase to the point where
we lost the control of our centres of gravity.

Every day we sallied out with our guns and snow-shoes in
search of birds, but during the first week or so it was some-
what monotonous work, and we soon began to tire of winter.
There were very few birds to be seen. In the village the
hooded crow,* the magpie, and the tree-sparrow were common,
and now and then we saw a raven. We took it for granted
that these birds had been at Ust-Zylma all the winter. The
peasants brought us frequently capercailzie and hazel grouse,
which they shot with their rifles and offered us at twenty
kopecks (about sevenpence) each for the capercailzie, and
the same sum per brace for the hazel grouse. These birds
are probably all residents, though Father Inokentia told us
that the hooded crow was a migratory bird at Pustorzersk,
arriving there about the 10th of May.

* The hooded crow (Corcus comix,
Linn.) breeds in Scotland, and is a
winter visitant to England. The whole
of Eastern Europe, including Denmark,
Scandinavia, and Russia, and the whole
of Western Siberia, including North
Turkestan, eastwards as far as the
watershed between the Obb and the
Yenesay, may be described as a vast
colony of hooded crows, with a few
outlying settlements in Scotland, Italy,
Greece, Palestine and Egypt. In other

parts of Europe and North Africa it
appears only as a winter visitant from
the extreme north. Wherever the
breeding range of this species adjoins
that of the carrion crow, as, for in-
stance, in Scotland, the valley of the
Elbe, Turkestan, and the valley of the
Yenesay, the two species appear freely
to interbreed. In the valley of the
Petchora we found it to be a resident
in latitude 65£°, and a summer visitor
in latitudes t>7° and «J8°.

E

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. V.

The commonest bird at this season of the year in the
streets of Ust-Zylma is undoubtedly the snow-bunting.*
We were told that they arrived about the 1st of April. In
spite of its abundance we could not help looking upon it
with all the interest attaching to a rare bird. The brilliant
contrast of the black and white on the plumage of these
birds, then rapidly assuming their summer dress, was espe-
cially beautiful during flight. The flight itself is peculiar,
somewhat like that of a butterfly, as if it altered its mind
every few seconds, as to which direction it would take. It can
scarcely be called an undulating flight. The bird certainly
does rest its wings every few seconds, but either they are
expanded when at rest, or they are rested for so short a time,
that the plane of flight is not sufficiently altered to warrant
its being called undulatory. The snow-buntings in Ust-Zylma
were principally in flocks, but now and then we saw a couple
of birds together which seemed to have paired, and occa-
sionally, when the sun was hotter than usual, a solitary snow-
bunting might be seen perched upon a rail attempting to
sing, but we never heard them sing on the wing. Unfor-

* The snow-bunting (Plectrophanes
nivalis, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird,
breeding principally on the tundras of
the Arctic regions beyond the limit of
forest growth. It has been known to
breed in Scotland, but is principally
met with in the British Islands during
hard winters. The snow-bunting is
one of those irregular migrants which
are driven southwards in severe seasons
in larger or smaller flocks to Central

Europe, South Siberia, North China,
Japan, and the northern states of
America. In the valley of the Pet-
chora we did not find them breeding
until we reached latitude 68|°. These
birds seem to lead a roving gipsy life
during winter, perpetually trying to
migrate northwards with every appear-
ance of milder weather, and perpetually
driven southwards with each recurring
frost.

CHAP. v. SNOW-BUNTINGS. 51

tunately we did not get far enough north to meet with these
birds at their breeding stations. In 1874, when Collett and
I were in Norway, we found the snow-bunting breeding on
the island of Vadso in the Varanger Fjord. We were too late
for eggs, as this bird is a very early breeder, and the young
were already in the nest by the middle of June ; but we had
many opportunities of watching the male birds. They would
fling themselves up into the air almost like a shuttlecock,
singing all the time a low and melodious warble, not unlike
that of a shore-lark, or perhaps still more like that of the
Lapland bunting, and they would immediately descend in
a spiral curve with wings and tails expanded, and finksh their
song on a rock. Although we only once or twice heard the
snow-buntings attempting to sing in Ust-Zylma, they were
by no means silent birds, and were continually calling to each
other. The call-note is a zh, not unlike that of the brambling
or greenfinch. The alarm-note is a loud tweek. As they
fly together in flocks they merely twitter to each other, not
unlike purple sandpipers on the seashore.

Flocks of redpoles * were also common, but consisting of

* The mealy redpole (Linota linaria,
Linn.) is a circumpolar bird breeding
at or near the limit of forest growth,
and visiting the British Islands some-
what irregularly in winter, being re-
presented with us by a very nearly
allied species, Linota rufescens (VieilL),
differing from the more northern form
in being somewhat more rufous in the
general colour of the upper parts. A
nearly allied form, which is said to be
still greyer in colour than the mealy

redpole and of somewhat larger size,
is found in Greenland, and has been
named L. hornemanni (Holb.). Some
writers make a fourth species, L.
exilipes (Coues), which may be said to •
be intermediate between the Arctic
and the Greenland forms. In the
valley of the Petchora we found both
L. linaria (Linn.) and L. exilipes
(Coues), and came to the conclusion
that the latter is nothing but the
fully adult winter plumage of the

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. V.

much smaller numbers than those of the snow-bunting.
Many of the males were beginning to assume the carmine
breast, showing great promise of beauty when the full
summer plumage should be attained. We were informed
that these birds arrived about the same time as the snow-
bunting. On the outskirts of the town we met with a few
small parties of yellow-hammers,* and occasionally heard
their familiar song. These birds are probably also migra-
tory. They were comparatively rare, and as we never
saw any farther north, we may assume Ust-Zylma to
be about the extreme limit of their summer range. The
forests were remarkably silent. Often there was not a
bird to be seen for miles. Once or twice we had a distant
glimpse of a Siberian jay, a marsh tit, or a bullfinch,
but we did not succeed in obtaining a shot. On the whole
our first week in Ust-Zylma was not very encouraging
from an ornithological point of view. After eight days'
work our list of identified birds in the valley of the
Petchora stood as follows: —

former. In winter this species is found
at different times throughout the whole
of Central and Southern Europe, occa-
sionally straying across the Mediter-
ranean. Eastwards it wanders as far
as Turkestan, Southern Siberia, North
China and Japan. On the American
continent it winters in South Canada
and the northern States. We did not
observe this species in the valley of
the Petchora farther north than lati-
tude 68°.

* The yellow-hammer (Emberiza ci-
trinella, Linn.) is a common resident
in the British Islands, as in most parts
of Central Europe. Northwards it is
a summer migrant, and in South Europe
and North Africa it is principally
secured in winter. The records of its
occurrence east of the valley of the Obb
appear to be unreliable. In the valley
of the Petchora we did not observe
it north of latitude 65£°.

CHAP. V.

WINTER.

53

1. Hooded crow.

2. Raven.*

3. Magpie.

4. Tree-sparrow.

5. Snow-bunting.

6. Mealy red pole.

7. Yellow-hammer.

8. Capercailzie.

9. Hazel grouse.

— certainly a very meagre list. Notwithstanding such a
bad beginning, we did not feel disheartened, but laid all
the blame on the weather. We could not help smiling at
our alarm in Archangel lest summer should come before we
could reach the Petchora. Nearly three weeks had gone
by, and summer and the summer birds seemed as far off as
ever. The thaw made no progress. Sometimes it was hot
enough in the sun in the daytime, and the glare of the
sunshine on the white snow forced us to wear snow spec-
tacles, but it always froze again at night, and if a few days'
sunshine made any impression on the snow, a raw cold day,
with a high wind and a more or less heavy fall of snow,
made everything look and feel as winterly as before.
Piottuch went over to Ishma with M. Znaniinski, but did
not shoot a bird. He told us that he saw two birds of prey,
most likely hen harriers, and M. Znaniinski informed us
that we must not despair, as a swan had been seen flying
over.

* The raven (Corvus corax, Linn.) is
a circumpolar bird rapidly becoming
extinct in England, though still breed-
ing in some numbers in Scotland. It
is a resident species throughout Europe,
but is not found in Africa. Eastwards
it extends throughout Asia from the

Himalayas northwards, being replaced
in China and Japan by a nearly allied
species, Corvus japonensis (Bonap.). It
appears to range throughout the con-
tinent of America as far south as North
Mexico. In the valley of the Petchora
we found it as far north as latitude 68°.

CHOOMS OF THE SAMOYEDES.

CHAPTEE VI.

The Samoyedes — Reindeer — The Tundra — Nomad life — Diseases of reindeer —
Samoyede national character — Trip to Umskia — Bad roads — Birds — Easter Eve
— Drunkenness — Snow — Our first bird's-nest — ISautre cote — Birds.

DURING this comparatively idle time we picked up what
information we could about the Samoyedes. Captain Engel,
who was a wild harum-scarum devil-may-care fellow, and had
been in most parts of the world, had seen a good deal of
the Samoyedes. Some years ago he was wrecked in the
lagoon of the Petchora, not far from the island of Varandai,
had been hospitably received by these wandering people, had
made his way across country to Kuya, and had remained

CHAP. vi. SAMOYEDES. 55

in the district ever since. The information which we
obtained from Captains Arendt and Engel may be summed
up as follows : —

The Samoyedes* are a Mongolian race of people of nomad
habits. They live almost entirely upon reindeer. In summer
they live in tents made of birch bark ; in winter their tents
or choorns are made of reindeer skins. They eat the flesh
of the reindeer, and drink its blood. Their dress is made
of its skins, neatly sewn together with reindeer sinews. The
wealth of a Samoyede consists entirely in the number of
his reindeer; each knows his own by marks cut upon the
animal's ear. In summer the Samoyedes live on the tundras.
Some go to the Kanin peninsula, some to the Timanski
Tundra or Malyazemlia, and others to the northern shores
of the Great Tundra, the Bolshaizemlia of the Eussians,
the Arkya-ya of the Samoyedes. These tundras are naked
tracts of slightly undulating land, rolling prairies of moor,
swamp and bog, full of lakes and abounding with reindeer
moss, upon which the reindeer feed. In summer the tundras
are quite impassable for horses, but the reindeer, with their
broad feet, will carry a sledge over places where it would
be impossible for a man to stand. The Samoyedes are
always on the tramp, seldom remaining long in one place.
A considerable portion of their lives is spent in packing,
unpacking and travelling. In winter the cold is too great
for the reindeer to find food under the frozen snow of the
Arctic latitudes, and in summer the poor animals would

* Pronounced Sam'-o-y;ide.

56 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vi.

be driven frantic by the mosquitoes which swarm in the more
southerly regions. In summer the Samoyedes occupy their
spare time in shooting ducks and geese, making their clothes,
reindeer harness, &c., and in winter they come down to the
towns and villages — Kuya, Pustozersk, Ust-Zylma, Mezen,
Pinega, &c., and barter their surplus reindeer, skins, horns,
feathers, &c., with the Bussian merchants for bread, vodka
and other articles. Those that come down to the more
southerly towns have learnt the value of money, and prefer
to sell rather than barter. They used to be very clever with
the bow and arrow, but now they all use old-fashioned small-
bore flint-lock rifles. Some of the Samoyedes are very rich.
A reindeer is worth about seven or eight roubles, or an
English sovereign. Some of the Samoyedes are said to
possess as many as 10,000 reindeer. Of late years the rein-
deer have suffered much from disease. Captain Engel was
of opinion that this disease was allied to cholera. The
animals turn dizzy, and run round and round like sheep
attacked by " sturdy." The reindeer also suffer much from
a hideous parasite. One day as we were passing a herd of
them in the streets of Ust-Zylma, Engel took hold of one
of the animals, and groping among the long hair on the
small of the back, he presently squeezed out of the flesh one
of these disgusting creatures. In a short time he produced
a dozen of them. They varied in size from half an inch to
an inch in length, the diameter being from half to a third of
the length. The surface was covered with rudimentary scales.
The lower part of the body was tapered, and the head
rounded with two indistinct jaws. We did not notice even

CHAP. vi. SAMOYEDES. 57

the rudiments of legs. They are no doubt the larvae of some
fly or beetle. Engel told us that they sometimes reached a
length of four inches or more. Some herds of reindeer are
perfectly free from these creatures, and others suffer very
much from them.

The Samoyedes are acute and intelligent people, but on
the whole they are not so sharp-witted as the Eussians.
They are good-natured and harmless, except \yhen they are
drunk, then they become quarrelsome and dangerous. They
are passionately fond of vodka, a mild, and to us by no
means palatable spirit, distilled from barley, arid they easily
become intoxicated. In some places they distil an intoxi-
cating drink from mushrooms. If a drunken Samoyede
quarrels, and calls for help, the other Samoyedes will at once
help him. Engel's recipe for dealing with a dangerously
drunken Samoyede is to supply him with more drink, when
he speedily becomes maudlin and begins to sing. The
Samoyede women are generally betrothed very young, about
thirteen, and often have children at fourteen. Some Samo-
yedes have more than one wife, but this is very rare. The
race is no doubt slowly dying out, and is to some extent
becoming mixed. They are acquainted with the stars, and
use them as a compass ; but Engel told us of a very curious
circumstance which came under his observation when he was
brought across the tundra in the sledges of the Samoyedes.
In stormy weather, when it was impossible to determine
the direction, the Samoyede used to scrape away the snow
down to the moss, which he examined, and altered his
course accordingly. The Samoyedes do not live to be

58 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vi.

very old, but greyhaired old men and women are seen
among them.

After we had been a week at Ust-Zylma without seeing
any sign of summer or summer birds, we began to find time
hang heavy on our hands. Picking up information about
the Samoyedes and the Old Believers was such unsatisfactory
work, from the contradictory nature of the reports, that we
soon got tired of it, and longed for something better to do
than shooting redpoles and snow-buntings. As we had not
met with any Siberian jays or bullfinches at Ust-Zylma, we
decided that the best way to while away the time was to go
back again to Umskia for a day or two, in the hope of find-
ing as many birds as we saw there before. We took the
small sledge and a couple of horses, and travelled all the
Fridav night. The journey was a very eventful one. The
sledge, it may be remembered, had turned over once with
Piottuch, but he had travelled at least a hundred miles in
safety afterwards, and we had almost forgotten the circum-
stance. We soon found out, however, that something was
radically wrong with the crazy machine. It must have
dropped its centre of gravity altogether on the via didbolica,
for between Ust-Zylma and Umskia (a distance of thirty-six
miles) we were upset and tumbled over into the snow no less
than fifteen times. This was altogether a new experience
for us, but we survived it without any damage, thanks to the
thickness of our malitzas and the depth of the snow.

Arrived at Umskia we were disappointed to see so few
birds. The Siberian jays had disappeared altogether. The
snow-buntings were represented by a solitary individual

'CHAP. VI.

UMSKIA.

59

perched upon the summit of a lofty larch. Occasionally
two or three redpoles were to be seen, and at long intervals
during the day a pair of bullfinches put in an appearance.
We saw a pair of white-tailed eagles* soaring over the
forest, but they never came within gun-shot. The day was
cold, with only occasional gleams of sunshine and continual
threatenings of snow, and no birds seemed to be feeding.
We took a long walk on the road, and made several excur-
sions into the forest and down the river on snow-shoes, but
scarcely a bird was to be seen. At this season of the year
it would seem that the most absolute silence reigns in these
drear Siberian forests. In the afternoon we tightened up our
" pavoska," and so far succeeded in restoring the centre of
gravity that we returned home without a spill. We saw
only two birds either in going or returning, a Siberian jay
in going, and a capercailzie t in returning.

* The white-tailed eagle (ffaliae-
tos albicilla, Linn.) appears to be con-
fined to the eastern hemisphere and
Greenland, and is still occasionally
found in the British Islands. It
breeds in suitable localities through-
out Europe and North Africa. East-
ward it breeds throughout Siberia, and
is occasionally met with in India and
China. We frequently saw eagles both
at Ust-Zylma and on our journey down
the river. On the tundra we occasion-
ally saw them as far north as we went.
At Habariki we saw an eagle with a
brown tail, which may have been a
bird of the year of this species or an
adult golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos,
Linn.).

f The capercailzie (Tetrao urogallus,
Linn.) formerly inhabited the British
Islands, afterwards became extinct, but
has of late years been reintroduced into
Scotland with great success. Where it
has not been exterminated it is still
an inhabitant of the pine regions of
Europe and Asia as far east as Lake
Baikal, where it appears to be re-
placed by a nearly allied species, Tetrao
urogalloides (Midd.). In the valley of
the Petohora the hen-birds of this
species formed an important article of
our diet. The peasants were glad to
sell them at sevenpence each. The
male bird is eaten freely by the Samo-
yedes, but is despised by the Russians
as coarse eating.

60 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vi.

On our arrival at Ust-Zylma at two o'clock on Sunday
morning, we found service going on in the church in cele-
bration of Easter Eve. We went with M. Znaminski to the
3 A.M. mass, and after service breakfasted with him, and at
7 A.M. turned into our hammocks for an hour or two's rest.
The Easter holidays lasted three days, during which we saw
plenty of eating and drinking, and some (but not much)
drunkenness. The Kussian peasantry in Siberia in Europe
easily get drunk. They drink vodka neat, and two or three
glasses are enough for most of them. There is one very
curious circumstance about drunkenness in this part of the
world. So far as we could ascertain, with the Kussian
peasants drunkenness never produces crime. When a Rus-
sian peasant is drunk, he is not quarrelsome like most
Englishmen, but simply becomes obtrusively affectionate.
He wants to embrace you, and kiss you, and be your very
best friend. During these holidays when we were returning
from the hospitable beards of our Eussian or German friends
in the small hours of the morning, we would occasionally
meet one or two victims of excess of vodka lying in the
snow, their malitzas being warm enough to prevent them
from being frozen to death.

On the Sunday night there was a very heavy fall of snow.
At least a foot must have been added to the depth. On the
Monday morning the weather was very stormy, and the fresh
fallen snow was drifted into hills and valleys. The change
in the' appearance of the to\\n was wonderful. The vast
dunghill of Ust-Zylma had put on its Easter holiday attire,
and was once more pure as the driven snow. Everything

CHAP. VI.

OUR FIRST NEST.

61

was covered with a layer of white powder, dry as dust, and
white as (the only possible comparison) white as itself. At
night the effect was still more striking. The snow on the
railings, on the house tops, and wherever it had been dis-
turbed by footmarks, was white, and all the rest was a pale
delicate cobalt-blue.

On Tuesday, 28th April, we got our first nest. It was
brought in by some peasants. It was the nest of a Siberian
jay, and contained four eggs. This bird is probably the
earliest breeder in these parts, and no doubt winters in the
Petchora district. The nest was not so flat as we expected,
composed almost entirely of lichens, with a few pieces of mat-
ting, hair, and feathers. The foundation was made of slender
pine twigs, and the inside was profusely lined with feathers.

The snowstorm having now ceased, we made an excursion
on snow-shoes to an island in the Petchora, and afterwards
visited the opposite bank of the river, Vautre cote, as Piottuch
called it. It was remarkable how very few birds we saw. I
twice came across a flock of bullfinches, all males, and shot
three of them. I also saw and shot a solitary tit, very nearly
allied to our marsh tit.* It is a greyer bird than ours, with

* The marsh tit (Parus borealis,
Selys.) appears to be a resident bird
throughout Europe and Northern and
Central Asia, being replaced on the
American continent by a nearly allied
species, Parus airicapillus (Lath.). It
is subject to considerable variation in
colour, which has given rise to its being
divided into several species, which are
generally admitted now to be only

deserving of subspecific rank. The
British form, which is very brown ou
the back, and has the black of the head
only extending to the nape, is also
found in South Europe and, curiously
enough, in China. In Scandinavia the
subspecies borcalis (Selys.) occurs,
having the back much greyer. The
form which we found in the valley of
the Petchora, which extends eastwards

62 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vi.

the white cheeks much whiter, and the black hood extending
much farther down the back.

We saw frequent footmarks of hares, and found several
snares set by the peasants to catch them. The next day we
visited the same ground again. We did not see a single
bullfinch, but caught a glimpse of a small spotted woodpecker.
We crossed over to the banks of the Zylma, but the birch
woods there produced nothing but a solitary marsh tit, which
I shot. The woods round Ust-Zylma seemed to be absolutely
empty of bird life. Our first eight days had produced only
nine species of birds. During the following ten days we
increased our list by only three birds — the bullfinch, the
Siberian jay, and the Siberian marsh tit.

throughout the whole of Siberia, and
which bears the name of camtschat-
kensif, has a still greyer back, and the
black of the head extends below the
back of the head on to the upper back.
An intermediate form, however, occurs
in Japan, in which the black of the j

head also extends on to the upper back,

but in which the colour of the

upper

parts is almost as brown as in the
British form. In the valley of the
Petchora we did not see this species
further north than latitude 66°.

LASSOING REINDEER.

CHAPTER VII.

Trip to Habariki — Samoyedes — Lassoing reindeer — Dogs — Birds — Samoyede
sledges — : Reindeer harness — The chooms — Samoyede hospitality — Marriage
ceremonies — Funeral rites — Religion.

IT was quite obvious that we should make little or no pro-
gress in our ornithological researches until summer came.
We accordingly laid ourselves out to pick up further infor-
mation about the Samoyedes, so that our time might not
be absolutely wasted. We had not yet visited any of their
chooms, or tents, and we were glad to learn from Captain
Engel that there were several in the neighbourhood of
Habariki. On Thursday morning we sledged over to that
village, a distance of forty versts. The road was about two-

64 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vn.

thirds on the Petchora, and the remaining third across
country, principally islands. It was so good that we ac-
complished the distance in four hours, stopping for half an
hour midway to feed the horses. We scarcely saw a bird on
the whole journey.

Habariki is a poor little village, without a church and
containing not more than a dozen houses. The sandy banks
of the river are about fifty feet higher than the level on
which it is built, and keep it out of the reach of the floods
that come with the thaw. The village was admirably
adapted for the winter quarters of Sideroff's steamer, which
lay below the bend in a little creek running back out of
the Petchora, protected there from danger of being smashed
to pieces by the blocks of ice that crash down on the break-
ing up of the river.

After a good lunch we hired two sledges and started in
search of the Samoyedes with Captain Engel and a Kussian,
the engineer of the steamer lying frozen under the village.
We had ascertained that there were some chooms about four
versts off, but just as we arrived at the place we found every-
thing ready for a move northward. The chooms were taken
down and packed on sledges, and the reindeer, to the number
of about 500, were collected together ; and before we had
been there ten minutes the order to march was given. We
were informed that they were not going far that afternoon,
and would probably erect their chooms in the course of the
evening within a verst of Habariki, but that before doing so
they were going to take out fifty of the reindeer which be-
longed to a Kussian. We were anxious to see the operation

CHAP. vii. LASSOING REINDEER. 65

of lassoing, and drove with the Samoyedes in our sledges to
the place selected for the purpose. As soon as we left the
road our horses stuck fast with the snow up to their traces,
and we were soon glad to give up our almost ineffectual
struggle to get along on foot, and seat ourselves on one of
the reindeer sledges which soon brought us to the spot. It
was admirably chosen — a large open space — perhaps half
a mile across, sufficiently hollow to give it the effect of a
natural amphitheatre surrounded by forest. In the centre
was a slight elevation, where three or four sledges were
stationed, commanding a fine view of the herd of reindeer
gathered round. A little below us in the hollow were about
a score of sledges with the women and the baggage.

The Samoyedes proved themselves expert in throwing the
lasso. In the left hand they held a small coil of rope, in
the right hand the larger half. The lasso was thrown with
an underhand fling, and generally successfully over the horns
of the animal at the first attempt. The left hand was then
pressed close to the side so as to bring the shock of the
sudden pulling up of the reindeer at full speed against the
thigh. When a reindeer found itself caught, it generally
made desperate efforts to escape, but was usually on its
haunches gasping for breath in a few seconds. The Samoyede
then hauled in the rope, or, if it was nearly out at full length,
another Samoyede came up and began to haul it in nearer
to the animal. When he was close to it he took hold of the
horns, and with a side twist, brought the reindeer down on to
the snow. The Kussian to whom the fifty reindeer belonged
then approached, and taking a thong of three-plait matting

F

66 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vn.

from a bunch at his belt, tied one of the animal's forelegs
to the hind leg on the same side ; crossing the feet, but
keeping the legs parallel at the point of ligature.

As soon as the reindeer was left, he made wild efforts to
rise and walk ; and sometimes succeeded in hobbling a few
paces. Finding his strength give way with his frantic
efforts to escape, he generally rested with his foreknees on
the snow for a time ; and finally lay down quietly. A dozen
reindeer were soon on the ground. The scene became quite
exciting ; the reindeer were wheeling round and round in.
circles. The dogs tied to the sledges barked furiously, and
evidently wished to have a share in the sport. The dogs
selected by the Samoyedes to help them to get within lasso
range of the deer, rushed frantically about at the command
of their masters, whose loud cries added to the excitement of
the scene. Sometimes a herd of reindeer ran over a place
where the snow was unable to bear their weight ; and it was
interesting to watch them snorting and plunging. As the
number caught increased, the difficulty also increased of
identifying and catching the remaining few of the fifty that
belonged to the Kussian, and the Samoyedes with the
lassos were driven about in sledges at a rapid pace to get
within reach of the animals they wanted. The deer kept
together ; if one ran out of bounds a dog was sent after it and
soon brought it back again. In one respect the reindeer
resemble sheep ; wherever one goes, the rest try to follow.

In this herd the greater number were females (vah'shinka),
with good horns ; these they do not cast till they drop their
young. A few were males Qiorre), their new horns just

CHAP. VII.

SAMOYEDE DOGS.

appearing. Those chiefly used in the sledges were cut rein-
deer (buck), also without horns. Some of the hornless
animals leaped right through the lasso and others were
caught by the leg.

The lasso is a cord about one hundred feet long, made of
two thongs of reindeer skin plaited together, so as to make
a round rope three-eighths of an inch in diameter. The noose
is formed by passing the cord through a small piece of bone
with two holes in it. The lasso passes freely through the
hole, while the end is fastened to a little bone peg with a
bone-washer to present it slipping through the other hole.

The dogs were all white except one, which was quite black.
They were stiff-built little animals, somewhat like Pomeranian
dogs, with fox-like heads and thick bushy hair ; their tails
turned up over the back and curled to one side. This simi-
larity between the Pomeranian and Samoyede dogs is a
rather curious fact, for Erman mentions a race of people
who, he says, resemble the Finns, both in language and
features, in a district of Pomerania called Samogitia. inhabited
by the Samaites.

The next morning we turned out of our hammocks at four
and strolled in the brilliant sunshine, hoping to meet with
some birds; but with the exception of the hooded crows,
magpies,* snow-buntings, and redpoles, we met with none

* The magpie (Pica rustica, Scop.)
appears to be a resident throughout
Europe and Asia north of the Hima-
layas, extending across Behring's Straits
to Western America, from Alaska to

California. In the extreme north it is
a partial migrant. In the valley of
the Petchora we found it up to lati-
tude 67 J°.

68 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vn.

feeding. In the wood we saw an eagle, a pair of marsh tits,
a pair of Siberian jays, and occasionally we marked a pair of
ravens.

After breakfast we visited the chooms, and very pic-
turesque they looked in the white landscape in the dazzling
sunshine. Here and there a few willows dotted the undu-
lating ground near a winding rivulet, in the centre of which
ran a narrow stream of open water. The reindeer were not
to be seen, all were away feeding. Two chooms stood a
few feet apart from the rest ; in front of these the sledges
were drawn up, twenty-three in number; some light and
elegant in shape, with four carefully hewn ribs on each
side, and a low sloping back. In these the Samoyedes and
their families travelled. Others were not quite so finely
finished, and had only three ribs on each side ; these were
used for the lighter baggage, reindeer skins, malitzas, &c.,
covered over, in some cases, with a tarpaulin made of
pieces of birch bark, neatly sewn together with reindeer
sinew. Other sledges again were of much stronger and
clumsier make, with only two ribs on each side, adapted for
the heavy baggage. Some of these were a simple gantry
upon runners, carrying casks of reindeer meat, others a
wooden chest with an angular roof like the recognised
Noah's ark model, containing loaves of black bread and
other perishable articles.

The harness of the reindeer is very simple. The saddle is
a plain band of tanned reindeer leather, about eight inches
broad, hanging a few inches below the body on each side.
About six inches from each end a double thong of reindeer

CHAP. vii. REINDEER HARNESS. 69

skin is attached, and forms the belly band. The thong passes
through the saddle, and is fastened to a button (stcliorlak)
made of reindeer horn or bone. These buttons are about
two inches in diameter, with two oval holes near the centre
for the thong to pass through. Some of these buttons are
round, others square with the corners off, others hexagonal ;
and others again hexagonal with every alternate side concave,
whilst some are merely irregular rhomboids. All the buttons
are bevelled on the edge, and generally slightly hollowed to
fit the curve of the reindeer's side. On the near side of the
near reindeer is a piece of carved bone, into which the
reins can be hitched, called halsu (the h pronounced slightly
gutturally). This part of the harness is of divers shapes and
patterns, and seems to be especially the part on the orna-
mentation and variation of which the Samoyedes expend
their spare time and taste.

The simplest form is a hook, to receive the reins. A
more elaborate one is a double hook, the reversed hook
being obviously added only for the sake of ornament. Others
again have the double hook, with a variety of ornamental
carving added. On the off side of the saddle, opposite the
halsii, is a leather loop to which the bridle rein of the
next deer is attached. The collar is a narrow band about
three inches wide, also of tanned leather, passing round the
neck. The two ends of this collar are fastened together by
the trace which passes from the sledge, between the hind
legs of the deer, between the body and the belly-band that
hangs rather loosely, then between the forelegs to the
breast, where it passes through the two ends of the collar,

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. VII.

and is secured to a bone peg or paysik of simple con-
struction. The head-piece or halter (for no bit is used) is
called syahney. That of the leading deer consists of a
square straight piece of bone or horn, about four inches long
on the right cheek, under the root of the horns with a hole
at each end, and a second piece of horn, a semicircular or
half-round section bending nearly rectangularly, not quite
in the middle. This piece of horn is hollowed or deeply

REIN RESTS.

grooved on the flat side, and has a hole bored through at
each end, and a third hole about half an inch from that one
at the long end. The position of this piece of horn is with
the short end halfway across the forehead and the long end in
a similar position to the straight piece of horn on the other
side of the head. Both pieces were more or less ornamented
with simple carving; they are fastened together, the ends

CHAP. vii. REINDEER HARNESS. 71

about a couple of inches apart by a short thong of plain or
plaited leather passing through the holes at one end of each
piece, and tied across the forehead. To the other ends of
the pieces of bone, plain thongs of leather are attached, one
passing behind the horns, the other under the neck. Through
the third hole, in the long side of the bent piece of horn passes
a thong fastened to the single rein, either with a simple tie
or with an intervening swivel made of horn, called by the
Samoyedes the surnyali. The head-pieces of the other deer
are slightly different. The bone pieces under the horns are
slenderer, both slightly curved and both alike. They are
tied together across the forehead, as is the head-piece of the
leading deer, but the other ends are tied to the apex of a
piece of bone or horn, shaped like an isosceles triangle, with
the angles cut off square, the angle at the apex being very
obtuse, and the basal line slightly concave. These triangular
pieces are placed nearly over the jugular vein, and are
fastened at one end under the neck, and at the other at the
back of the head. The bridle-rein is attached at one end to
the thong passing at the back of the head, and the other to
the saddle of the deer to the left or near side. The wood or
bone blind pulley through which the traces run, is called
pate-cliay , it is so arranged that any deer not doing its fair
share of the pulling drops behind against the sledge. The
animals are urged on by a long pole, with which they are
hit or poked ; it is called the toor, and the bone button at
the end of it the toor-mahl. Behind each sledge, on each
side, there is a thong of leather passing through a hole,
pierced through one end of a bit of bone about nine inches

72 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vn.

long. A second thong of leather forms the link connecting
this to a second bone, which can be fastened to the head-
piece of the deer of the following sledge, which thus requires
no driver. This rude chain is .called the poo-in-ah. The
swivel is occasionally a brass one, bought from the Eussians ;
now and then a brass ring is seen on the head-piece ; some-
times tassels of plain leather shaped like luggage labels,
and stained vermilion, ornament it.

The chooms were shaped like ordinary regulation tents,
about twelve feet in diameter and height ; they were sup-
ported inside by some thirty slender birch poles, converging
to a cone, tied together in a bunch at the top. This skeleton
was covered with old, dirty and much patched reindeer skins,
sewn together and lined with coarse and half rotten canvas,
probably old sails. Some cords of twisted reindeer sinew
strengthened the structure, and an opening about a foot wide
was left at the summit of the tent to serve as a chimney.
We drew back the covering overlapping the opening used
as a door, and entered. Snow, heaped up to the height of
about a foot, protected the choom from bottom draughts. A
wood fire burned in the centre upon a thin metal plate ; an
ordinary gipsy kettle was suspended over it by a simple
arrangement. Mats of slender birch bark, woven together
every six inches by a warp of string, were placed on either
side of the fire ; over these were stretched another mat made
of some kind of rushy grass. Around were packed various
articles of clothing, wooden bowls and spoons of Kussian
origin, a Eussian box containing a china tea-service ; a heap
of entrails or reindeer, part of which were doubtless stewing

CHAP. vii. INSIDE THE CHOOMS. 73

in the kettle, and sundry other articles. Exactly opposite
the door there hung one of the Onega bronze bas-reliefs of
saints or Virgins, framed in a rudely carved piece of wood,
shaped somewhat like a cross.

After purchasing some reindeer harness, we were invited
to drink a cup of tea, and to eat a kind of spiral biscuit.
Our hostess had just been sewing ; a steel needle, a tailor's
thimble, and thread of reindeer sinew, lay in a corner of the
tent. The smoke annoyed us when we stood up, but we did
not feel it much when seated. The Samoyedes sat cross-
legged on the ground ; and tea was served on a little table,
just large enough to hold half-a-dozen cups, and whose legs
were not more than six inches high. As usual, we found our
hosts very ready to give us any information we asked them.

The Samoyedes never seemed annoyed at our taking notes
among them ; they struck us as a good-tempered, somewhat
phlegmatic race. They carried old-fashioned Kussian flint-
lock rifles, but we could not rouse their interest in our
breech-loaders ; they do not appear to work much in metals.
They always carry a knife, no doubt of Eussian make, but
they are very ingenious in making handles, and in orna-
menting them. Patterns of various kinds of elaboration
are carved upon them, and the patterns filled up with
melted tin. They use a small saw; a rude form of brace
and bit, and also the indispensable axe.

Like the Kussians, the Samoyedes have beautiful white
and regular teeth. They are very fond of chewing the resin
which they get from the Scotch fir, which doubtless assists
in keeping the teeth clean.

74 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vii.

As we are now on the subject of this strange race, we may
as well insert here some details we gathered a few days
later, after our return to Ust-Zylina, from a Samoyede, who
drove up in his reindeer sledge from a choom near Habariki.
Our interpreter was a Polish Jew, banished by his father to
Siberia, because he had adopted the religion of the Greek
Church. He translated the Samoyede's bad Russian into
worse German.

We were informed that when a young Samoyede desires
to marry, and has come to some understanding with the
damsel of his choice, he visits her father's chooin, and with
a short stick taps him, and then the mother of the maiden,
on the shoulder. He then demands the girl in marriage,
and offers the father and mother a glass of vodka, which he
has brought with him. As a token of his goodwill the father
drinks the vodka ; he tells the young man he has no objec-
tion, but that he must ask the girl's consent. The pre-
liminary ceremony of asking papa having been gone through,
the young man retires. A few days later he comes again to
the choom ; this time accompanied by what servants he has, and
provided with plenty of vodka. His retinue remain outside,
while he enters the choom, and seats himself by the side of
his lady love. The father hands the young man a glass of
vodka ; he drinks half, and hands the half-full glass, under
his left arm, to the girl, who finishes it. The father then
gives his daughter a glass of vodka, who in like manner
drinks half of it, and presents the remainder with her left
hand under her right arm to her lover, who drains the glass.
After this the father hands a piece of raw flesh to the young

CHAP. vir. MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 75

man who eats it, and then takes a piece from the floor, eats
half, and presents the other half under his left arm to the
girl to finish. She, in her turn, takes a piece of raw flesh from
the floor, eats half, and likewise hands the other half under
her right arm to the young man to finish. Then follows the
eating and drinking that in barbarous, as in civilised nations,
is considered necessary to ratify the ceremony. Before night
an old man, called a shamman, a kind of magician or medicine
man, carrying a drum, visits the choom ; of him the bride-
groom asks certain questions concerning his bride. If the
old man knows nothing against her he begins to play upon
his drum, and the marriage is completed. If, however, the
magician speaks evil of the girl, then the young man has
the option of leaving her there and then, or if he be still
enamoured of her charms, it is open to him to bargain with
her father to take her for a month, or a year on trial. At
the expiration of the time agreed upon, if the pair suit each
other, they consider themselves married for life. On the
other hand, should they not agree, they can separate at the
end of the time specified ; but in that case the man must
provide for any children born within the period. After the
marriage festivities are over, the young couple are left alone
in the choom of the bride's father.

It is customary for the bridegroom to present his bride
with the skin of a black fox. The girl's father gives his son-
in-law a choom, with all its appurtenances, and five, ten,
twenty or thirty reindeer, according to his wealth. If the
bridegroom be rich, he gives his father-in-law money to the
amount sometimes of two hundred roubles.

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. VII.

Since the adoption of the Kussian faith by the Samoyedes
they bury their dead. Previous to their conversion, when
one among them died he was fully dressed and, in his best
malitza and soveek, he was laid flat on his back on the snow
or the tundra, according to the season of the year. His
favourite Touch reindeer was killed and laid by his side, with
his best harness and his driving pole and bow.* The choom
is taken down at once, and the camp is broken up amidst
much weeping and lamentation. If possible the place is
never revisited. The Samoyedes believe that if the dead
man's property were not left with him his spirit would
follow them.

The Samoyedes used to have wooden idols, to which they
sacrificed reindeer, f In order that the reindeer may reach
the unseen god, of whom the wooden idol is evidently con-
sidered but the symbol, it must be killed in a peculiar
fashion. A running noose is made in the middle of a cord
and put round the horns of the deer; a Samoyede holds
the two ends. Another noose is put round the animal's hind
feet, and while he is thus held at full stretch, he is stabbed in
both sides with two pieces of wood (not with a knife) ; then
the spirit of the reindeer is supposed to be sent to the god.

* Captain Hall, in his < Life with the
Esquimaux,' mentions a similar custom
existing among them. The Innuits seal
up their dying in snow-huts, or igloos,
where they are allowed to die alone. The
blubber lamp, the fishing and hunting
instruments of the dead, are always laid
by his side, and the place is abandoned.

f William Govedon, who wintered at
Pustozara, 1614-1615, tells us that the
Samoyedes had then uno true know-
ledge of God, but worship blocks and
images of the deuill, unto which they
strangle tame deere." — See ' Purchas his
Pilgrimes,' lib. iii. ch. 12.

CHAP. VII.

RELIGION.

77

The greater number of Samoyedes have adopted the Kussian
faith, and have been baptized into the Greek Church, but
many of these still retain their ancient beliefs, and sacrifice
to their idols, while in the more easterly parts of the
Great Land of the Samoyedes, many have not yet been
" converted."

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

A SPILL IN THE SNOW.

CHAPTER VIII.

May-day — Snow-buntings — Jackdaws — Game — Birds of prey — Sunday at Ust-
Zylma — A fire — Marriage ceremony — Tenure of land — The commune — Prepara-
tions for summer.

ON May-day the thaw continued in real earnest. A warm
wind and a hot sun made great havoc with the snow. All
traces of the heavy fall of the previous Sunday night soon
disappeared, and a considerable portion of the old accumu-
lation of winter melted. Ust-Zylma became once more a
vast dunghill ; and on the hills, where the snow in some
places lay exceptionally deep, it was too soft to bear our
weight even on snow-shoes. We attempted our usual

CHAP. VIII.

JACKDAWS.

79

ramble in the woods at the back of the town ; but travelling
was very laborious, and we returned to our quarters with
broken snow-shoes, and without having remarked anything
of special interest. With the exception of a yellow-hammer,
which was making a feeble attempt to sing, we scarcely saw
or heard a bird. One effect of the thaw was to banish the
snow-buntings from the town to the country. Although this
bird is thick-billed, and undoubtedly feeds on grain and
seeds during the winter, it appears to change its diet to some
extent during the breeding season. When I was in Lapland
I found it nesting amongst the rocks on the island of Yadso,
in the Yaranger Fjord. Not far distant, down by the shore
was the great whaling establishment of Mr. Foyne, where an
average of three whales a week were cut up. The snow-
buntings visited the yard constantly, which abounded with
insects attracted by the offal ; and the stomachs of some
which I shot and skinned proved to be full of insects.

During this sloppy season we confined our walks pretty
much to the town itself, carrying our walking-stick guns in
case a new bird should turn up. On the 3rd of May we were
rewarded by seeing for the first time a pair of jackdaws.*

* The jackdaw (Corvus monedula,
Linn.) is a resident throughout Europe
and in many parts of North Africa.
Specimens from Eastern Europe fre-
quently are much whiter on the collar,
and may be considered as a sub-species,
collaris (Drumm.) which extends east-
wards as far as the watershed of the
Obb and the Yenesay, southwards
through Cashmere to North-West
India ; still farther to the east a more

distinct or nearly allied species is found
— Corvus dauuricus (Pall.) — distin-
guished by having the collar still whiter,
and also by having the vent white.
The variety which we found in the
valley of the Petchora was the Corvus
monedula, subspecies collaris. We found
this bird common on our journey as
far as Mezen, and afterwards only met
with a solitary pair at Ust-Zylma. .

8o

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. VIII.

It was contrary to law to shoot in the streets, and the birds
were within a stone's-throw of the house of the public prose-
cutor. I shot one of them, as I thought very cleverly on
the sly ; but I found that my attempt at concealment had
been a failure, for a day or two afterwards, whilst discussing
our walnuts and wine with the chief magistrate at the public
prosecutor's hospitable table, we were kindly cautioned to
shoot as little as possible in the streets.

The liberal hospitalities of our friends helped to beguile
the time during the thaw; and occasionally the peasants
offered us birds, which provided variety for our larder, and
sometimes interested us and found employment forPiottuch.
We bought four capercailzies for eighty kopecks from one
of our friends the Samoyedes, who had shot them with ball.
Hazel grouse* were also frequently brought in to us, at
twenty kopecks per brace. They are most delicate eating,
and are thought by many gourmands to be the finest game
that can be brought to table.

Winter returned on the 4th of May, when a raw west
wind brought a heavy storm at noon ; after which snow and
bitter cold continued, with occasional high wind, till the

* The hazel grouse (Bonasa betulina,
Scop.) is not found in the British
Islands, but inhabits the pine forests
of Arctic and north temperate Europe
and Asia, as far east as Japan, where it
is a partial resident, wandering from
forest to forest in the winter season
rather than migrating. In the valley
of the Petchora these birds were sold
to us by the peasants, but, curiously

enough, we never chanced to come
across them ourselves. 1 afterwards shot
plenty of them on the other side of the
Ural Mountains. This bird, the Hyerpa
of the Norwegians and the JRyab'chik
of the Russians, is considered by many
epicures to be the finest game that
comes to table — even superior to our
own grouse.

CHAP. viir. BIRDS. 81

8th. We went out, notwithstanding, struggling on snow-
shoes across deep ravines and through bushes and plan-
tations. We also made an excursion within the island, in
search of birds. For some days the snow-buntings remained
outside the town, in such immense flocks, that when they
rose the whirring of their wings could be heard at some
distance. On the 6th, the snow drove them. back into Ust-
Zylma ; also small parties of redpoles, that follow the
buntings very much as the starlings follow rooks.

When we first met with the flocks of snow-buntings we

C5

found them to consist principally of males, but as the season
advanced the females largely predominated. On the 4th
of May we saw a white-tailed eagle and a hen harrier,* and
on the following day we had an excellent sight of a merlin.
Magpies were as abundant as ever, but, like the snow-
buntings, they had moved into the country, and on the 5th
we discovered a nearly completed nest in a spruce fir, built
about five feet from the ground. The birds were most
vociferous, and used every artifice to decoy us away from
their property.

On the 8th of May summer seemed farther off than
ever. The day before the weather had been very change-
able— alternately warm, snowing, hailing, sleeting, with an
occasional gleam of sunshine, and a cold wind, but on the

* The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus,
Linn.) has not yet been exterminated
by the gamekeepers from the British
Islands. It breeds in the Arctic and
north temperate regions of Europe and
Asia, visiting South Europe principally

in winter, at which season of the year
it is found in North Africa as far south
as Abyssinia. It also winters in Persia
and India and South China. In the
valley of the Petchora we found it as
far north as latitude 68£°.

G

83 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vin.

whole a thaw. The next day the morning was bitterly cold,
with the north wind blowing hard. In the afternoon the
wind veered to the west, with a heavy fall of snow. At
midnight the wind dropped, the sky became clear, the ther-
mometer went down to 16°. The landscape was again white
and frost-bound. It looked exactly like mid-winter, except
that at that hour of night we could see to read a newspaper
out of doors. The climate of these regions is very curious
at this time of the year. The change is sudden and violent
— the leaping from mid- winter into summer, without any
intervening spring.

We strolled out in the morning, not expecting to see any-
thing new. We shot a tree-sparrow and a yellow-hammer,
and were returning home somewhat disheartened, in spite
of our unexpectant mood at starting, when a hen harrier
suddenly put in an appearance. He did not, however, come
within range, and we went into a little valley, there to wait
for him or a chance raven. By-and-by a small hawk crossed
in front of us. We followed it up the hillside, caught sight
of it again, watched it alight on a heap of manure, quietly
stalked it, and shot it. It turned out to be a female merlin.*

* The merlin (Falco cesalon, Gmel.) i is replaced by a very nearly allied

still breeds in the British Islands and j species — Falco columbarius (Linn.). In

throughout North Europe, wintering in i the valley of the Petchora we observed
South Europe and North Africa. East-

wards it breeds throughout Northern
Siberia, occasionally straggling as far
south as Scinde and North-West India

it as far north as latitude 68°. The
merlin is a regular summer migrant to
the moors of South Yorkshire and North
Derbyshire, where it would commit sad

in winter, passing through Mongolia havoc among the young grouse, if it
on migration, and wintering in South j was not relentlessly persecuted by the
China. On the American continent it ' gamekeepers, who keep a close watch

CHAP. VIII.

MERLIN.

Whilst we were carefully putting it away, the eagle passed
almost within shot of us. In one of the cottages a peasant

upon its well-known breeding-places.
It arrives upon the moors towards the
end of March or beginning of April,
and feeds principally upon the smaller
birds frequenting the district (the
meadow pipit, gray linnet, twite, &c.),
which its rapid powers of flight en-
able it easily to fly down without
resorting to the manoeuvres which the
clumsier sparrow-hawk is compelled to
take advantage of. These moors are
the constant breeding-place of three
species of hawk — the kestrel, the spar-
row-hawk, and the merlin. The kestrel
hovers over the ground at a considerable
height, and pounces down on a mouse,
and occasionally a lizard or a young
grouse, as the pellets they cast up
abundantly testify. The sparrow-hawk
skims over hill-tops or hedges, or
round rocks, and comes upon its prey
unawares. The merlin, on the con-
trary, fairly flies it down. The site
selected for a nest varies in different
localities with many species of birds.
On the moors in the neighbourhood of
Sheffield, however, the sparrow-hawk
invariably builds in a tree ; the kestrel
as invariably chooses a cleft in a rock,
and the merlin always builds upon the
ground. The date of nidification is
evidently chosen with relation to an
abundant supply of food for the young,
as in the Cyclades Eleonora's falcon
postpones its operations until August,
so that the young may be fed upon the
flocks of quails returning southward
on their autumn migrations ; the mer-

lin lays its eggs about the middle of
May, so that the voracious young may
be fed upon young grouse. A slight
hollow is chosen amongst the tall ling ;
whatever roots or dry grass may chance
to be upon the spot are scratched into
the rudiments of a nest ; and the only
materials actually selected by the bird
appear to be a few slender twigs of
ling to form the outside of the struc-
ture, and which are generally broken
from the heather overhanging the nest.
The site is usually sloping down to a
stream and commanding a good view
of the moor, and a patch of heather
some couple of hundred yards square
has often contained a merlin's nest
every year for the last dozen years,
whilst no other breeding-place could
be found nearer than eight or ten miles.
I watched two of these breeding-places
on the Sheffield moors — one near
Ashopton and the other near Strines —
for many years, and was well acquainted
with the gamekeepers in both localities.
There would be nothing extraordinary
in this if it could be proved that the
same pair, or their descendants,
annually visited and occupied the
same breeding-stations ; they might
easily be supposed to have obtained
a vested right in the estate and to have
defended it successfully against all
comers. But every year the game-
keepers in both localities shoot or trap
one or both of the parent birds — gene-
rally both— and in no case for more
than ten years have they ever allowed

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. VIII.

showed us the skin of an eagle-owl.* The next evening we
strolled out on the banks of the Petchora. Brilliant sun-
shine flooded the earth, not a cloud was in the sky ; but it
was cold and winterly as Christmas. Flocks of magpies and
of hooded crows were almost the only birds we saw. They
passed us on the wing, evidently going to their resting-places
in the woods.

The week had not brought us many birds, but we knew
summer was at hand, and we waited patiently. Meanwhile
we mingled with the inhabitants of Ust-Zylma and observed
their ways. Sunday seemed among them a day devoted to

the young birds to get away. They
have found out by experience that it is
of no use to shoot one of the birds before
they have begun to breed, because in
such case the survivor finds another
mate in a few days. They shoot or
snare the cock-bird as soon as they can
after the hen has begun to sit. In the
neighbourhood of the nest are little
rocky elevations on the ground, which
the cock-bird uses as feeding-places,
and which are easily found by the
feathers of young grouse and other
small birds scattered round them. Upon
these knolls traps are set, and as soon
as the cock-bird is caught, the hen is
easily shot off the nest. For several
successive years I have seen this done,
and taken the eggs myself, but curiously
enough, in the summer of 1872 no
merlins appeared in either locality.
The only way in which to account for
the selection every year of the same
locality by a fresh pair of birds seems
to be to suppose that the merlins mi-

grate en masse, and that as they pass
each recognised breeding-place, if the
former occupants are not there to take
possession, another pair immediately
occupy it. The facts of the case seem
to warrant the conclusion that the
selected sites for breeding are well-
known to a large circle of merlins ;
otherwise it is difficult to account for
the choice always falling upon the
same site, out of an indefinite num-
ber of others apparently equally
eligible.

* The eagle owl (Bubo maximus,
Flem.) has almost become extinct in the
British Islands, but is still a resident
in the mountainous districts of most
parts of Europe, and is occasionally
found in North Africa. Eastwards it
is found throughout Siberia and China,
and has been met with in the Himalayas.
We did not meet with this owl in the
valley of the Petchora, but twice saw
skins of birds of this species shot at
Ust-Zylma.

CHAP. vni. FIRE. 85

calling, and many sledges would drive up to the house where
we were, from the neighbouring villages. The peasants
combined business with these visits to town, and we bought
one Sunday four skins of the white fox and one of the grey fox
for nine roubles and a half, from one of Boulegan's visitors.

Once we had an opportunity of seeing the people of Ust-
Zylma turning out to extinguish a fire. A small conflagra-
tion burst out in the house of Captain Arendt. All the
villagers trooped to the spot, armed with axes, wooden
shovels, and boat-hooks. It is the law that in case of fire
every peasant should assist in putting it out. On each
house a board is nailed up, on which is roughly sketched
the article its inhabitant mast furnish to assist in extin-
guishing the flames. The people keep to their primitive
ways and habits. We watched a peasant one day shooting
at a mark with a flint-lock rifle. The barrel was very
thick, and the bore the size of a large pea. He carried
a spiral coil of lead, and, when the unsophisticated fellow
wanted a bullet, he bit a piece off with his perfectly
white regular teeth, and chewed it into a rough bullet.
His gun, which he told us was worth five roubles, was
ornamented all over the stock with by no means unartistic
carvings.

On one occasion we assisted at a wedding in the Orthodox
Greek church. The marriage ceremony took place in the
afternoon, and was sufficiently imposing. The priest met
the couple at the vestibule of the church. After going
through a form of prayer, he presented the bride and bride-
groom with a lighted taper, which he had first crossed over

86 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. vin.

their bowed heads ; the rings likewise were crossed over their
heads, as were also a pair of gold crowns before being placed
upon them. The Bible and the crucifix were kissed. A
silver cup of wine was quaffed by the plighted pair, each
drinking from it alternately. Censers of incense were swung.
The priest, the happy couple, and the assistants bowed and
crossed themselves continually, and between each part of the
ceremony prayers were offered.

We were not very successful in our attempts to obtain
accurate information as to the tenure of land. It was some-
times difficult to reconcile conflicting statements. Most of
our informants, however, agreed that they or their ancestors
were formerly serfs of the crown, that after their emancipa-
tion the land remained the property of the crown, and was
leased to the village or commune at a nominal rent. The
affairs of the commune are managed by a parliament or
town council, composed of every householder, electing a
mayor or " starrester " (literally, oldest man), whose term of
office is three years, and who is responsible to the Govern-
ment for the rent or taxes payable by the commune. Every
three years a redistribution of land takes place, the arable
land being divided amongst the householders in lots propor-
tionate to the number of individuals living in each house.
Five hundred roubles will build a handsome habitation in
Ust-Zylma. We were informed that every peasant was
annually entitled to a fixed number of cubic yards of fire-
wood without charge, and to a limited number of balks of
good building timber, which he was free to sell if he did not
require to use it.

CHAP. viii. PROCRASTINATION. 87

The evident near approach of summer was. the signal for
unusual exertions on the part of the peasants. Procrastina-
tion seems to be a Kussian national vice. Now when the
horses were nearly worn out by long feeding upon bad hay,
and when the roads were very heavy by reason of the thaws,
the poor animals had to work double time. A quantity of
last year's fodder still lay on the flat land on the other side
of the Petchora, which, if left, would inevitably be swept
away when the frozen river broke up ; the cattle had
now to be taken across the ice and housed in a place of
safety, there to wait until the floods subsided on these flat
stretches, and the new rich pasture had begun to spring up.
The women and children had also to be transported across,
to look after the cattle ; whilst the men went down the river
to fish, leaving Ust-Zylma as deserted for three months as a
winter village in the Parnassus.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVKR CROSS.

SHOOTING WILD GEESE.

CPI AFTER IX.

Mild weather — Bear tracks — Saddle of bear — First rain — Six new migratory
birds — Magpie's eggs — Cessation of the winter frost — Return of winter — A
wild goose chase — Cachets — Night on the banks of the Petchora — The silent
forest — A new bird.

Ox the 10th of May, for the first time we had real summer
weather, which continued for some days. It thawed in the
shade, as well as in the sun ; as there was not much wind,
however, the snow melted slowly. We drove up the Zylma
and took a long walk in our snow-shoes, returning across the
island ; but the pine and birch woods were still almost

CHAP. ix. SADDLE OF BEAR. 89

deserted. We shot a pair of marsh tits, heard the cry of a
great black woodpecker, and saw four wild geese flying over
our heads. On the island we fell in with a small flock of
shore-larks * and succeeded in shooting four, while feeding
upon the bare places on the banks of the island. We
also started a pair of wild geese and a large owl, probably
the snowy owl, which alighted on a heap of snow in the
middle of the Petchora. Its flight resembled that of the
glaucous gull, but it occasionally skimmed close to the snow
for some distance.

We traced along the snow the footprints of a bear and its
cubs, about a day or two old. The traces of Bruin's presence
had an added interest to us, from the fact, that for the last
two days we had been breakfasting and dining on a saddle of
bear, and most excellent we had found it, much better than
beef. The animal, we had been feasting on, was about a
year old ; it had been turned out of its place of hybernation
by some woodcutters, who had cut down the tree at the root
of which it was sleeping. I bought the skin and had an
excellent hearth-rug made of it.

Summer now seemed to have suddenly burst upon us in
all its strength, the sun was scorching, the snow in many
places melted so rapidly as to be almost impassable. The
mud banks of the Zylma were steaming from the heat. On

* The shore-lark (Otocorys alpestris, \ the British Islands on migration, or
Linn.) is a circumpolar bird breeding | during winter. It winters in the south

on the tundras beyond the limit of
forest growth, migrating southwards
in autumn and occasionally visiting

of Europe, North China, and the south-
ern states of North America.

9o

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. IX.

the 12th of May, about noon, the weather grew hazy, with a
very conspicuous halo around the sun, like a dull circular
rainbow ; the wind was warmer than it had yet been, and in
the afternoon there came on a steady rain, the first rain we
had seen since we left home. Sancho Panza says that one
swallow does not make a summer ; but the arrival of six
species of migratory birds within two days ought to have some
significance. On the llth we saw for the first time a pair
of swans. The same day on the half open land, between
the Petchora and the Zylma, we saw some flocks of wild
geese, and, near a pool of water on the ice, half-a-dozen
Siberian herring-gulls.* Their cry seemed to me to be

* The Siberian herring-gull (Larus
affinis, Eeinhardt) was first described
from a bird obtained in Greenland,
where it is probably only an accidental
visitor. When we visited the valley
of the Petchora, little or nothing was
known of its history or geographical
distribution. It had long been con-
fused with the lesser black-backed
gull and the Mediterranean herring-
gull. The colour of its mantle is inter-
mediate between that of these two
species. From the former it may easily
be distinguished by the pale wedge-
shape pattern on the first few primaries,
and from the latter the fact that the
tarsus is longer instead of shorter than
the foot is an additional mark of dis-
tinction, besides the difference in colour.

When I was in St. Petersburg in the
autumn of 1877 I carefully examined
the magnificent series of gulls in the
museum of the Imperial Academy of

Science, and discovered that this species
appears to breed in the extreme north
of Europe and Asia, from the White
Sea to Kamtchatka. Middendorf ob-
tained it in the breeding season on Bear
Island, south of Solovetsk in the White
Sea. Harvie-Brown and I obtained
eggs in the valley of the Petchora,
about latitude 68°. Finsch and Brehm
found it in the valley of the Obb. I
found it breeding abudantly in the
valley of the Yenesay, between latitude
70£° and 71 J°. Middendorf brought
home skins from the Boganida and
Taimyr rivers, near the North-East
Cape, and Kittlitz obtained it in Kam-
tchatka. The European and West
Siberian birds probably winter on the
shores of the Arabian Sea, since it was
obtained by Karelin both on the spring
and autumn migrations in the Caspian
Sea, and abounds in winter at Kur-
rachee, where; Hume records it (' Stray

CHAP. IX.

NEW ARRIVALS.

exactly the same as that of the common and Mediterranean
herring-gulls. On the 12th came a little detachment of
white wagtails * in the village, we shot six during the day.
In each instance, they were on the roof of the houses. We
also shot a redstart,! occupying the same position. Another
new arrival was the meadow pipit, of which we shot a
solitary example. The shore-larks had already been some
days in Ust-Zylma, and by this time were in large and small
flocks in the fields on both sides of the town. All those we
shot proved to be males. Three or four small hawks, pro-
bably merlins, were hovering about, and a snowy owl | was

Feathers,' 1873, p. 273), under the
erroneous title of Larus occidentals ,
(Audubon). It has not hitherto been
obtained in the British Islands, but
several examples have occurred during
winter on Heligoland, and a sharp look-
out should be kept on our shores.

* The white wagtail (Motacilla alba,
Linn.) is a comparatively rare bird in
the south of England, but is common
on the continent of Europe, breeding
in the south only at high elevations,
but extending northwards beyond the
limit of forest growth. In some parts
it is said to be resident, but the Arctic
birds migrate into South Europe and
North Africa in winter. Eastwards
it extends throughout Siberia as far
south as about latitude 59°, and as far
east as the watershed between the
Yenesay and the Lena. There appears,
however, to be a somewhat isolated
colony breeding in the mountains round
Lake Baikal, crossing Mongolia and
West China on migration, and wintering

in India. In the valley of the Petchora
we met with it up to latitude 68°.

t The redstart (Ruticilla phoeniciirus,
Linn.) is a common British bird during
the summer, arriving early in April.
It breeds throughout Central Europe,
extending north wards beyond the Arctic
circle. In South Europe it is rarely
seen except in spring and autumn,
though a few remain to breed at high
elevations. It probably winters in
Northern and Central Africa. In Asia
its range during the breeding season
extends eastwards as far as the valley
of the Yenesay, the Asiatic birds
wintering in Persia.

J The snowy owl (Nyctea scandiaca,
Linn.) is a circumpolar bird breeding
principally within the Arctic circle, and
occasionally straggling in winter to the
British Islands, various parts of Central
Europe, South Siberia, Mongolia, and
the United States of America. In the
valley of the Petchora we found it as
far north as we went.

92 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. ix.

brought in to us, apparently just killed. A white-tailed eagle,
his white tail looking grey against the snow, was perching on
an ice block in the Petchora ; and at a little distance off we
could distinctly see a raven picking a bone. Morning and
evening we watched the gulls, without being able to get a
shot at them. The redpoles had disappeared altogether,
and we saw the snow-buntings only once or twice. The
signs of coming summer were surrounding us, small flies
were on the wing, twice we came upon a tortoise-shell
butterfly ; we visited the magpie's nest, which we had dis-
covered some days previously in a pine-tree, and found that
it contained seven eggs. But even the approach of summer
has its accompanying drawbacks : we had to give up at this
time all hope of more winter posts, and two months might
elapse before the summer ones would arrive. This break in
the communication with civilised Europe is one of the
sorest trials to be endured by explorers in these districts.

The little spurt of mild weather, however, turned out to
be a delusion. Our six species of summer migrants proved
no more reliable than Sancho Panza's solitary swallow. On
the 13th a strong gale from the north brought winter back
again, and drove away our newly arrived visitors to more
genial latitudes. The snow-buntings and the shore-larks
became very wild during this spell of bitter wind ; towards
evening it dropped, and when we came in upon a flock of
the former, they were so tame that they allowed us to walk
about, within ten and sometimes five yards of them. The
flock was composed mostly of females ; one male, that we
observed amongst them, was in more mature plumage than

CHAP. IX.

SWANS.

93

any we had yet seen. Birds of prey appeared in unusual
numbers. We saw hen-harriers, both male and female,
numerous merlins, which often perched upon the heaps of
manure in the fields, and for the first time we saw a peregrine
falcon.* Piottuch was fortunate enough to shoot a fine
snowy owl on the goose ground, between the Petchora and
the Zylma. A hard frost in the night, followed by a cold
east wind, with bright sunshine, was most unfavourable to
the arrival of migratory birds. We were deliberating as to
what would be the least unprofitable mode of spending the
day, whenv the Preestaff sent in to inquire if we would join
him and the postmaster in an excursion four-and-twenty
miles up the Petchora to shoot geese. These were the two
" swell chasseurs " of Ust-Zylma, and we accepted their invi-
tation gladly. We ordered a horse and sledge, packed up
provision, tents, and wraps, and were soon en route.

About halfway we descried two swans on the snow of the
Petchora. We started our sledge in pursuit, approaching
the birds in a spiral curve, we came within range, fired, and
missed. The birds, very large and very white, flew about a
verst across the river, and again alighted. Here they were
joined by a third swan. Slowly again we crept up in a
spiral curve within range ; this time two rifles fired, and

* The peregrine falcon (Fako pere-
grinus, Tunst.) is a circumpolar bird
still found in Great Britain, although
rapidly becoming extinct. It breeds
more or less regularly in every country
in Europe, and winters in Africa, occa-
sionally straying as far south as the

Cape. It also breeds throughout Asia
and North America, wherever suitable
localities are found ; and has been found
in winter as far south as the Argentine
States of South America. In the valley
of the Petchora we met with it breeding
in latitude 68°

94 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. ix.

both missed ; a third time the rifles caine within range, but
with no better result ; after which the swans flew right away.

We then visited a small lake close to the banks of the
Petchora, but it was completely ice-bound, and declared to
be "neeayt dohbra" (good for nothing). Finally, we
selected a spot where there was open water in two places.
Geese flew about in small flocks, at intervals during the
afternoon, and we all expressed confident hopes of a bag
after sunrise. The horses were taken from the sledge, a fire
was lit, supper with unlimited tea followed, and was over by
eleven. We then selected places, supposed to be favourable
for the cachets ; at each place a hole was dug in the snow,
which was piled up to the height of three or four feet, and
this snow wall was planted round with willow twigs. Cocksure
(the nickname we gave to Piottucb, a bad pun on his name),*
who by the way was in high glee, drove across the Petchora,
with the postmaster, where he was " cocksure " of finding
plenty of geese.

After a final cup of tea and a smoke, we separated at one
o'clock, each departing to his cachet, to take, if he felt so
inclined, a sleep in the snow for a couple of hours. I did
not feel sleepy, and was curious to watch a whole night on
the banks of the Petchora ; so dofling my malitza, axe in
hand, I set to work to turn my cachet into a turreted castle,
some six feet high inside. It was a keen frost, and the
surface snow was easy to hew out into square blocks, which
I joined together, with soft snow from below ; soon, my

* " Piatookh " is the Russ for " a cock."

CHAP. ix. SUNRISE. 95

castle was one solid mass of frozen snow. The exercise kept
me warm. I planted my last piece of willow twig and put
on my malitza, just as the sun appeared above the horizon,
amidst lake and vermilion clouds, behind the steep mud-
banks on the other side of the Petchora. Behind me rose
a thick wood of willow and decayed or decaying birch, a
pine rising here and there between. Presently I spied,
between my turrets of snow, a marsh tit silently searching
for food on a willow ; I changed one of my cartridges for
dust, put my feet into my snow-shoes, sallied forth, and shot
it. His mate soon began to call, and in half a minute I
secured her also, and returned to my cachet.

An hour passed by ; now and then I heard the distant
" gag gag " of the geese, or the wild cry of some far-off swan,
but nothing came within range of less than cannon shot of
me. Fourteen large glaucous gulls slowly flew up the
Petchora ; I watched a pair of swans on the ice through my
telescope, and listened to the distant call of some smaller
gulls ; whilst redpoles and white wagtails often passed over
me, all flying up wind.

At length I got tired of waiting and watching, and made
an excursion on my snow-shoes into the wood. All around
was dead silence ; nothing to be heard but the gentle rattling
of the east wind amongst the leafless branches of the willows.
The wood seemed as empty of bird-life as the desert of
Sahara.

I returned to my cachet, and waited and watched with no
better result than before. A flock of snow-buntings came
fluttering up the Petchora, and alighted on some willow-

96

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. IX.

trees ; this was interesting. I now made an excursion to
the cachet of my companions. I had forgotten to wind my
watch, and made this an excuse for my visit. Halfway to
it, I came upon a small flock of reed-buntings, amongst some
willows, and missed a shot at one of them. My companion
had stuck heroically to his cachet, but had had no better
luck than mine. As we were chatting, we heard the note of
a bird, which I took to be a redstart.

I followed the sound to some distance, but could not over-
take the bird on my snow-shoes. Setting out to return to
my cachet, I was interrupted by a flock of reed-buntings ; *
I got a shot at one, but the cap missing fire, away they flew.
I was returning disconsolately by the side of a thick but
narrow plantation, when I heard a " gag gag " through the
trees, and descried seven geese, apparently flying straight
for my companion's cachet. I fired, and down came a pair
of bullfinches ; the rest flying away ahead of me. I followed
in pursuit, but without getting a second shot; on returning
I learnt my companion's success. He had brought down a
" bean goose." t

* The reed-bunting (Emberiza sclice-
niclus, Linn.) is a resident species in the
British Islands, and breeds throughout
Northern and Central Europe and
Northern Asia. Wherever the winter
is severe it is a migratory bird, visiting
South Europe, North Africa, Persia,
Turkestan, India, and Japan. In the
valley of the Petchora we did not
observe it farther north than latitude
68°.

f The bean goose (Anser sege'um,

Gmel.) appears to be confined to the
eastern hemisphere. It is doubtful
if it has ever bred in the British Islands,
but it is common in various parts during
winter. It does not breed far south of
the Arctic circle, frequenting principally
the tundras beyond the limit of forest
growth. In winter it is found in
various parts of temperate Europe,
occasionally crossing the Mediterranean
into North Africa. In Asia its winter
range appears to be confined to Asia

CHAP. ix. COCKSURE. 97

On my way to my cachet, I met another party of reed-
buntings, one of which I bagged ; then I sat in my hiding-
place for an hour, waiting for geese that never came within
range.

At eight I found I had taken a wink of sleep, I could
stand it no longer, so set off in search of my companions, and
bagging another reed-bunting and wagtail on my way, we
returned together to our encampment, where we soon had
the kettle boiling with " tchai."

The postmaster and " Cocksure " turned up as we were
breakfasting, and reported a blank night. The Preestaff, we
found afterwards, had fared no better. Deciding that we had
had enough of this wild goose chase, we harnessed our sledges
and returned home in a steady rain. Our horse was done
up, and we were six hours on the road, through four of
which we slept soundly, waking up just in time to bag a
score of shore-larks.

Notwithstanding its inglorious results, we enjoyed our trip
as a novelty, and had many hearty laughs, over divers " spills "
out of and over the sledge. As ours was the only one that
brought home a dead goose, the best of the laugh was on
our side. We had, moreover, bagged a new migrant, and
Cocksure had seen a black woodpecker * and a common snipe.

Minor, Chinay and Japan. In the valley
of the Petchora we found it as far north
as we went.

* The black woodpecker (Dryocopus
martins, Linn.) is of extremely doubtful
occurrence in the British Islands, but
is a resident throughout Northern and | nor did we see it farther north than
Central Europe and Asia. In Eastern ; Ust-Zylma.

II

Europe its range is somewhat more
southerly, extending to Turkey, the
Ionian Islands, and Asia Minor. In
Asia it does not occur south of Siberia.
We did not succeed in obtaining a
specimen in the valley of the Petchora,

THE BANKS OF THE ZYLMA.

CHAPTER X.

Gulls — Species new to Europe — Fresh arrivals — Duck-shooting — Bird-life in the
forest — Gulls perching in trees — Break-up of the ice on the Zylma — On the
wrong bank of the river — Dragging the boats across the ice — Final break-up of
the ice on the Petchora.

THE same evening, as we sat at the window of our rooms
writing up our journals, and now and then looking up to
glance through the rain at the ever-impressive scene before
us, the great river Petchora, suddenly we descried upon the
ice a flock of (it might be) two hundred gulls. In the twinkle
of an eye, we had donned our indiarubber boots and were
wading through the streets of Ust-Zylma. As we neared
the birds we made sure, from their note, that the larger

CHAP. X.

GULLS.

99

number of them were the common gull,* with (it might be) a
dozen Siberian herring-gulls among them. We discharged
four cartridges of our goose shot into them. Our broadside,
fired from a distance, left one dead and one wounded on the
field. The smaller species was undoubtedly the common
gull with soft parts as follows : —

Bill and legs, gamboge yellow ; inside of mouth, angle of
gape, and round the eye, vermilion ; irides, grey ; pupil,
blue-black.

It was not at first so easy to determine to what species the
larger gull belonged. The soft parts were as follows : —

Bill and legs, straw yellow, with a large pale vermilion
blotch on the angle of the lower mandible ; inside of mouth,
straw yellow, with a tinge of orange at the angle of the
gape ; irides, pale straw yellow ; pupil, blue-black ; round
the eye, the colour of a Seville orange.

The colour of the mantle of these large gulls was inter-
mediate between that of the lesser black-backed gull and
the Mediterranean herring-gull, but the wing pattern re-
sembled that of the latter species. Upon our return home,
with the help of our friend Mr. Howard Saunders of London,

* The common gull (Larus canits,
Linn.) appears to be confined to the
eastern hemisphere, breeding both in
the temperate and Arctic regions, being
a resident in the former and migratory
in the latter. It breeds in many parts
of the British Islands, and in winter its
numbers are increased by arrivals from
the north, many of which wander as far
south as the Mediterranean. Eastwards

it is found as far as China, Kamtehatka,
and Japan, but in America it is replaced
by two very closely allied species, Lams
delawarensis (Ord.), and Larus brachy-
rhynchus (Rich.). This species is less
arctic in its range than the other gull <
which we met with in the valley of the
Petchora. We did not find it farther
north than latitude 67£°.

ioo SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. x.

the great authority on gulls and terns, we cleared up the
difficulties surrounding this species, and finding that it had
no colloquial name in our language we ventured to christen
it the Siberian herring-gull. The species was' not new to
science, but we claim to have been the first to add it to the
list of European birds.

Another species new to our list was the golden plover,*
which also arrived in flocks. These birds were special objects
of our attention, partly because they were a valuable addition
to our larder, and still more so because we were anxiously
on the look-out for the arrival of the grey plover, the eggs
of which were one of the possible prizes which we hoped to
obtain. All our efforts to obtain even a glimpse of the
latter species on migration proved, however, in vain. As
we subsequently met with them on the tundra, we can only
suppose that they migrate to their breeding-quarters by a
different route, probably following the coast line. If they
do fly across country, they must travel at such a high
elevation that they are rarely observed inland.

Wild geese and swans .increased in numbers daily, and

* The golden plover (Charadrius
pluvialis, Linn.) is another of the
western palsearctic species, the eastern
limit of whose range is bounded by
the Himalayas and the watershed of

guished by having smoke-grey instead
of white axillaries. Within this range
it breeds in the north temperate and
Arctic regions, including the British
Islands. Some remain in South Europe

the Yenesay and the Lena, being re- to winter, but the majority appear to

placed in Eastern Siberia by a nearly pass on to North Africa, a few migrating

allied species, Charadriusfulvus (Gmel.)^ during the winter season as far as South

and on the American continent by* Africa. The Asiatic birds winter in

Charadrius virginicus (Burkh.), the Beloochistan, some of them probably

two latter species being easily distin- | crossing Arabia into Africa.

CHAP. X.

PIPITS.

101

about this time flocks of wild ducks began to fly up the
Petchora. So far as we could judge they seemed to be
principally pintail ducks, though we succeeded in shooting
a teal *

Pipits also began to arrive in great numbers. They were
wild and difficult to shoot, apparently all flying up wind ;
evidently eager to continue their journey and rarely
alighting on the ground. Both species were represented,
but they appeared to migrate in separate flocks ; and the red-
throated pipit f was much more abundant than the meadow
pipit.J We occasionally heard both species singing, but
they were by no means in full song, being evidently
intent on migration.

* The teal (Querquedvda crecca,
Linn.) must be considered as a palse-
arctic species, being only occasionally
found in Greenland and the eastern
coasts of North America. In the ne-
arctic region it is replaced by a very
closely allied species, Querquedula caro-
linensis (Gmel.). It is a resident in the
British Islands, though its numbers
are largely increased during the winter
season. There are very few countries
in Europe where it does not occasionally
breed, and in winter it has been found
as far south as Abyssinia. It breeds
throughout Siberia, and winters abun-
dantly in India, China, Formosa, and
Japan. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not find it north of the Arctic
circle.

t The red-throated pipit (Anthus
cervinus, Pall.) has been included in

the British list, but apparently ou
insufficient evidence. It breeds on the
tundras in the Arctic regions of both
Europe and Asia, wintering in South-
Eastern Europe, Algeria, Egypt, Nubia,
and Abyssinia, and eastwards in Persia,
India, China, and Japan. In the valley
of the Petchora we found it as far north
as we went on the mainland.

J The meadow pipit ( Anthus prciten-
s/s, Linn.) is common throughout Arctia
and temperate Europe, the birds in-
habiting the colder districts migrating
southwards to the basin of the Mediter-
ranean. The records of its occurrence
east of the Ural Mountains are very
questionable. In the valley of the
Petchora we found it a much rarer
bird than the red-throated pipit, and
only once met with it breeding in about
latitude 68°.

102

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. X.

Fieldfares * and redwings t also arrived and soon became
very numerous ; and in the flocks of shore-larks which con-
tinued to pass through the district, a few Lapland buntings 4
were generally to be seen.

Flocks of shore-larks had by this time become more
numerous, and consisted of males and females in nearly
equal numbers. These birds were very tame, frequenting
for the most part the fields at the back of the village,

* The fieldfare (Turdus pilaris,
Linn.) is a regular winter visitor to
the British Islands, having a somewhat
more southerly breeding range than
the redwing. It breeds in the Arctic
circle, extending up to and occasionally
beyond the limit of forest growth, and
frequenting also in large colonies the
various birch regions in north tem-
perate Europe and throughout Siberia,
as far eastwards as the watershed of
the Yenesay and the Lena. It winters
in Southern Europe, occurring very
rarely in the Spanish peninsula, but
crossing the Mediterranean to Morocco,
Algeria, Egypt, and Nubia. In Asia it
winters in Turkestan and Cashmere.
In the valley of the Petchora we found
it up to latitude 68°.

f The redwing (Turdus iliacus, Linn.)
is a regular winter migrant to the
British Islands, breeding at or near
the Arctic circle, occasionally straying
into Greenland, throughout the palse-
arctic region, though it appears to
become very rare east of the valley of
the Yenesay. It winters in western
and southern Europe, occasionally cross-
ing the Mediterranean into Algeria.

| In Asia it has been found sparingly in
j winter in Persia, Turkestan and North-
I West India. In the valley of the
| Petchora we found it as far north as
' latitude 68°. The redwing frequents
: the birch region and the upper zone of
i the pine region, occurring south of the

Arctic circle, wherever these trees are

found at a greater or less elevation.

It is the most northerly in its range of
I any of the thrushes, being occasionally

found on the tundra beyond the limit

• of forest growth. In these localities

; it breeds on the ground like a ring-

• ousel.

J The Lapland bunting (Plectro-

i phanes lapponicus Linn.) is a, circum-

polar bird breeding on the tundras

I beyond the limit of forest growth, and

' occasionally straggling into England in

i winter. It winters in various parts

; of Europe, China, and the Northern

United States of America. In the

valley of the Petchora we found it

passing through Ust-Zylma in great

numbers, and did not meet with it

again until we reached latitude 68°

and latitude 68J°.

:HAP. x.

WHIMBRELS.

103

feeding and running about in the stubble, and occasionally
attempting to sing on the ground. The snow- buntings and
redpoles had disappeared, and in the streets their place
appeared to be taken by white wagtails. Fresh nocks of
these charming little birds in full breeding plumage arrived
daily ; and in a large flock consisting of thirty to forty birds,
we noticed among them a green wagtail.*

Three whimbrelsj passed over us. My companion whistled
to them, so cleverly imitating their note that they ap-
proached within fifty yards of him, when he shot them. A
peasant also brought us a rook,{ the only one we saw during

* The green wagtail (Budytes viri-
dls, Gmel.) has not been found on the
British Islands, being represented there
and in the temperate regions of Europe
by a nearly allied species, Motacilla
flava (Linn.), which differs in having
the colour of the head — and especially
of the cheeks and the lores — paler, and
in having a white eye-stripe. The
former species breeds at or near the
Arctic circle, throughout the pal^arctic
region, wintering in South Europe,
North Africa as far south as Abyssinia,
India, and China. In the valley of the
Petchora we found it as far north as
latitude 66J°.

t The whimbrel (Numenius phceopus,
Linn.) is very widely distributed, but
appears to be confined to the eastern
hemisphere and Greenland. In the
British Islands it only breeds in the
extreme north, vising the remainder
only in spring and autumn on migra-
tion. It is said to breed in South

Russia, otherwise it is doubtful if it
breeds very far south of the Arctic
circle. In winter it is found throughout
South Europe, the whole of Africa, and
Southern Asia as far south as Australia.
In the valley of the Petchora we
did not see it further north than Ust-
Zylma.

J The rook (Corvus frugilegus, Linn.)
breeds in considerable colonies through-
out Central Europe, extending east-
wards in Asia as far as the valley of
the Obb. To the north it becomes
much rarer, seldom, if ever, reaching
the Arctic circle. In England, as is
well known, it remains throughout the
year, but in countries where the winter
is more severe it migrates southwards
to both shores of the Mediterranean,
the Siberian and Turkestan birds appa-
rently wintering in Cashmere and
North-West India. In East Asia it is
replaced by a very nearly allied species,
C. pastinator (Gould), which differs in

104

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. X

our journey. At this time we ascertained positively the
presence of a bird which we had long suspected to be on the
roof of the Preestaifs house next door to ours — a no less
important bird than the common sparrow.* We shot two
males and three females. This is an extraordinary instance
of the extreme localness of birds. We never by any chance
saw these common sparrows among the tree-sparrows t in
our yard, nor had we any reason to think that they were to
be found elsewhere in the town.

On the 19th we received an invitation from our friends
the chasseurs, who had assisted us in our late wild goose
chase, to join them in a duck hunt. M. Znaminsky had
a maisonnette a few versts up the Zylma, which he turned
to use on such occasions of sport. He and M. Sacharoff
were already there. We accepted the invitation, and after
sledging across the Petchora, and perhaps four versts up the
Zylma, we reached our host's quarters at about 3 A.M. We
had made a somewhat circuitous road up the Zylma, for

having the head and neck glossed with
purple and not with green, and in
having the bare place round the bill
of much smaller extent.

* The common sparrow (Passer
domesticus, Linn.) appears originally to
have been confined to Europe, North
Africa, and Asia as far east as the
watershed of the Yenesay and the
Lena, but it has been introduced in
almost every British colony, the United
States, many of the Pacific Islands,
West Indies, New Zealand, Australia,
&c. It is generally a resident species,
except where the winters are very

severe. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not find it farther north than
latitude 68°.

f The tree sparrow (Passer montamis,
Linn.) appears to be confined to the
eastern hemisphere, being a not un-
common resident in the British Islands,
and is found throughout Europe, occa-
sionally crossing the Mediterranean.
In Asia it is found as far as the Pacific,
extending southwards to North India,
Burmah, and South China ; being every-
where mere or less a resident. In the
valley of the Petchora we found it as
far north as latitude 68°.

CHAP. x. DUCK SHOOTING. 105

there were many ugly-looking places in the ice which had to
be avoided. On arriving we dismissed our yemschiks, who
returned to Ust-Zylma with orders to come with five sledges
to fetch our whole party back on the following day at noon.

The shooting-ground was a flat piece of country, lying
betweeen the Petchora and the Zylma. It bore traces of its
annual submersion for a week or two under the waters of
the great river when it breaks up. The larger part was
covered with a forest of birch, willow, and alder ; many of
the trees were dead, no doubt all life drowned out of them ;
and, all around, driftwood was scattered or accumulated in
piles.

It was heavy work walking in these woods, or rather
wading through the water and snow in them. Every now
and then we came to a lake or an open swamp, or found our-
selves on the banks of a " kooria " or creek where the snow
had melted, and the walking was easier. Few or no trees
grew by the side of these koorias ; the banks of the Zylma
also were bare ; the forests near the Petchora being shaved
off by the ice that sometimes mows down the stoutest trees
as a man mows grass with a scythe. On the low ground
between the Zylma and the forest land, pollard willows grew,
many of which were knocked down by the floating blocks
of ice.

It would be impossible to estimate the number of ducks
we saw. They seemed to fly over us by hundreds and
thousands. Small and large flocks continually passed us on
the wing. In the evening the shores of the Zylma and a
piece of open water opposite were almost black with them ;

io6

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. X.

sometimes they filled the air like a swarm of bees. They
were very wild, but the old pollard willows gave excellent
opportunities for concealment, and a good shot would have
made a heavy bag in a short time. My companion shot
seven in about an hour ; six pintails * and one teal.
Nearly all these ducks were pintails ; we identified hundreds
through our glasses, and saw only a few teal.

My companion identified a small flock of shovellers,! one
of which flew quite close to him. He also distinctly made
out a pair of golden-eyes,J which came within shot while

* The pintail duck (Dafila acuta,
Linn.) is another species of duck breed-
ing in the Arctic regions of both hemi-
spheres. In the British Islands it is
a winter visitant, though a few may
remain to breed. Its range in summer
extends from the northern portion of
the temperate region to some distance
beyond the Arctic circle. It winters in
various parts of Europe and North
Africa, India, China, Japan, and Central
America. In the valley of the Petchora
we found this species abundant wherever
we went.

f The shoveller duck (Spatula
dypeata, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird
tolerably common in the winter season
in Great Britain, a few remaining with
us to breed. Throughout Central and
Southern Europe, and Africa as far
south as Abyssinia, it appears to be a
resident species, though the numbers
in winter are largely increased by birds
from the Arctic regions. In Asia its
southern limit during the breeding
season appears to be the mountains of

Cashmere. It winters in India, Ceylon,
South China, Formosa, and Japan. On
the American continent its winter
range extends almost to the equator.
We met with it in the valley of the
Petchora up to latitude 68°.

•J The golden-eye duck (Clangula
glaucion, Linn.) is also a circumpolar-
bird, but is replaced in Greenland and
Iceland by Clangula idandica (Gmel.),
a species which is also met with
throughout the American polar region.
In the British Islands it is only known
as a winter visitant. From the pecu-
liarity of its breeding in hollow trees
it does not, of course, migrate beyond
the northern limit of forest growth,
and it is occasionally found breeding
south of the Arctic circle. In win-
ter it is found in various parts of
Central and Southern Europe, some-
times crossing the Mediterranean. It
has not been recorded from Persia or
India, but in Eastern Asia it has been
found as far south as China in winter,
and in America in North Mexico

CHAP. X.

WIDGEON.

107

we were dining. Through the glass he also recognised a
widgeon.* We also saw a few geese and swans. We met
with the greenshank f more than once, and had a fine view
of the peregrine falcon. A small flock of shore-larks and a
few red-throated pipits, too busy migrating to stop to be
shot, nearly complete the list of birds we saw in the open
country.

I spent most of my time in the woods. Three weeks
before we had made a long round through them on our
snow-shoes, and found them deserted ; not a bird to be seen
but a solitary marsh-tit or an occasional " hoodie." Now in
the early morning these woods were full of life and abounded
in interest for the ornithologist. In the afternoon they were
more quiet, and the interest was not sufficient to repay the

and Cuba. In the valley of the Pet-
chora we did not meet with this species
farther north than Habariki.

* The widgeon (Mareca penelope,
Linn.) must be considered as a palse-
arctic duck, though its range extends
eastwards beyond Behring's Straits to
the coast of Alaska. In Great Britain |
it is a common winter visitant, occa-
sionally remaining to breed. It also I
breeds in the northern portion of tern- j
perate Europe, extending northwards
beyond the limit of forest growth. In
Asia it appears to breed throughout j
Siberia, passing through Turkestan in
spring and autumn on migration, and
wintering in Scinde, India. South China,
Formosa, and Japan.; This bird is cer-
tainly the most abundant species of
duck inhabiting the islands of the delta

of the Petchora, but we did not see
it farther north than latitude 68°.

f The greenshank (Tetanus glottis,
Bechst.) is confined to the eastern hemi-
sphere, breeding in Scotland, but only
known as a spring and summer migrant
in the rest of the British Islands. It
breeds on the fells of Norway and
Sweden, and in Siberia south of the
Arctic circle. It passes through Central
Europe on migration, and winters on
both shores of the Mediterranean and
throughout Africa. It passes through
South Siberia on migration and winters
in India, the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, Australia, China, and
Japan. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not meet with it farther north
than Habariki.

io8

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. X.

toil of wading through water, snow, mud, and drift-wood. The
commonest and noisiest bird was the redpole. Next to it
strange to say, was the meadow pipit. This bird behaved in
every way like the tree pipit, being occasionally seen on the
ground, but mostly up in the trees ; sometimes singing on
the ground, sometimes when on the wing, oftener in the
branches overhead.

We had just decided that these birds were, or ought to
be the tree pipits, when we shot down half-a-dozen from
among the branches, and finally satisfied ourselves that
they were the meadow pipit. Our astonishment was still
greater, however, when we beheld three gulls quietly perched
upon the top of a tall birch in the wood. We watched them
for some time, examining them through our glasses ; at last
they rose and flew over our heads, and by their cry we
recognised them to be the familiar Larus canus ; shortly
afterwards we shot one.

Fieldfares and redwings were sprinkled through the
woods ; we could almost always hear the song of the latter
bird, as well as the loose cry of the former, and its starling-
like note before alighting. My companions saw a couple of
redstarts chasing each other, and I followed a willow-wren,*

* The common willow- warbler
(Phylloscopus trochilus, Linn.) is one
of the most abundant of the numerous
songsters which visit the British Islands
every spring, arriving early in April.
Throughout that month, as well as in
May and June, its familiar song, like
a peal of little bells, resounds in every
wood and garden. This species breeds

in Western, Central, and Northern
Europe. I found it common in Norway
up to the North Cape. Colonel Irby
found it breeding abundantly near
Gibraltar. It is said only to pass
through Italy in spring and summer
on migration. Mr. Danford tells me
that it breeds in Transylvania, but Dr.
Kruper informed me when I was in

CHAP. X.

WOODPECKERS.

109

which was in full song, for at least an hour, but did not
succeed in shooting it. Many white wagtails flew past, and
the reed-buntings were also common. Where the birches
were largest we heard the tapping of the woodpeckers. We
shot a pair of lesser spotted woodpeckers ; * and of a pair of
three-toed woodpeckers t that we saw, we succeeded in

Athens that it is only found in Greece
and Asia Minor in winter. Captain
Shelley says that it winters in Nubia
and Egypt, and Canon Tristram records
it as abundant in the oases of North
Africa in winter. I have also seen
skins collected in winter from the
river Gambia, Damara Land, Cape
Town, Natal, the Transvaal, and Abys-
sinia. In Siberia Finsch and Brehm
found it in the valley of the Obb, and
1 constantly heard its song in the valley
of the Yenesay up to latitude 70°. The
Siberian birds are probably those which
have been found wintering in North-
Central, and South-Eastern Persia.

* The Siberian lesser spotted wood-
pecker (Picus pipra, Pall.) is very
nearly allied to the smallest species
of British woodpecker (Picus minor,
Linn.), but differs in being larger and
in having the whole of the underparts
unspotted silky white, with the excep-
tion of the under-tail coverts, which
are slightly streaked with black. The
outside tail-feathers have two rudi-
mentary cross-bars. The transverse
bars on the back and rump are nearly
obsolete. This species is the Picus
kamchatkensis of Cabanis, Bonaparte,
Sundevall, and Malherbe. I have shot
it at Archangel as well as in the
valley of the Petchora, and have seen

skins from the Yenesay, Lake Baical,
and the Amoor. I have also in my
collection examples from the islands of
Sakhalin and Yezzo, north of Japan.
Compared with the South European
form it is an excellent species, but
birds from Norway and Sweden are
somewhat intermediate, being as large
as the Siberian species, but in the
colour and markings of the back and
underparts scarcely differing from the
South European form. In the valley
of the Petchora we found the Siberian
species not uncommon in the birch
forests as far north as the latter ex-
tended, where they doubtless remain
throughout the year.

f The three-toed woodpecker (P»-
coides tridactylus. Linn.) has probably
never occurred in the British Islands,
but is a resident species throughout
Northern Europe and Asia, and the
mountainous districts of Central and
Southern Europe and South Siberia.
In the valley of the Petchora we did
not observe it farther north than
latitude 67°. On the continent of
America it is replaced by a species
(Picoides americanus, Brehm) so nearly
allied as to be considered by many
ornithologists to be only subspecifically
distinct.

no SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. x.

shooting the male. We also shot a pair of marsh tits.
Between this bird's habits and its note and those of our
English bird I could distinguish no difference.

When I returned, on the morning of the 20th after a five
hours' solitary ramble in the woods, I found the sportsmen
still fast asleep. My entrance roused them, and we soon
proceeded to make " tchai." We were sitting down to our
pipes after our late breakfast, when we were startled by the
appearance of M. Znaminski, who had just gone out, and
who now came hurrying back in a state of great excitement,
beckoning to us to come.

We seized our guns, expecting to see some great and rare
bird ; we rushed to the door, and there we paused and stood
still, gazing before us in mute astonishment. Our road was
in movement, and was going to Ust-Zylma at the rate of
two or three miles an hour. There was no doubt about it,
the Zylma was breaking up. The scene was wild and pic-
turesque. In a few hours it was very impressive. The rush
of ice had broken into the Petchora at the mouth of the
Zylma. Here and there piles of it lay upon the banks.
Finally it had blocked, and gradually the Zylma became a
confused mass of jammed ice ; tree trunks or an occasional
ice-floe, thicker than the rest, formed where the water had
been stiller arid deeper, rising above the level. While the
ice moved the sound was like that of a waterfall : as it
cracked on the Petchora, the noise was as that of rumbling
thunder. The water was rapidly rising, and our predicament
was serious. It was obvious that no horses could reach us.
The Kussians, who at first did not realise the situation, soon

CHAP. x. THE ICE BREAKS UP. in

began to look grave. We took council together, and we
decided to transport ourselves and our baggage to some
houses that stood on higher ground, halfway towards the
mouth of the Zylma. It took us some hours to do this. We
were beginning to make preparations for a week's camping
in the midst of floods, when towards four o'clock we discerned
in the distance the figures of our yemschiks. They were
coming, but they were coming without horses. When they
reached us we learned from them that the ice was broken up
on both shores of the Petcbora. They had come across in a
boat ; that they had dragged for a couple of versts in a sledge
across the central field of ice, being forced to leave it on
the shore five or six miles off. We determined to put the
bulk of our baggage under the charge of two yemschiks,
and to return with the other men in the boat

We felt rather nervous as we entered the boats, and put
to sea on the open water across which we had sledged so
recently, and we had some little difficulty in finding a solid
piece of ice on which to land. The central ice of the Pet-
chora was evidently on the eve of being broken up. Every
nerve was strained to drag the boats across the mile of ice,
and relaunch them on the safe side of the river without a
moment's unnecessary loss of time. It was past midnight,
and at any moment the crash might come. The ice was
obviously under great pressure. Cracks running for miles
with a sound like distant thunder warned us that a mighty
power was all but upon us, a force which seemed for the
moment to impress the mind with a greater sense of power
than even the crushing weight of water at Niagara, a force

ii2 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. x.

which breaks up ice more than a mile wide, at least three
feet thick, and weighted with another three feet of snow, at
the rate of a hundred miles in the twenty-four hours. It
was eight o'clock in the morning when we landed in Ust-
Zylma, and heartily thankful we were to find ourselves once
more safe in our quarters. We were hungry and dead tired
after the excitement was over, and after a hasty breakfast
we were glad to turn into our hammocks. We slept for a
couple of hours, when, looking out of the window, we found
the crash had come ; the mighty river Petchora was a field of
pack ice and ice-floes, marching past towards the sea at the
rate of six miles an hour. We ran out on to the banks
to find half the inhabitants of Ust-Zylma watching the
impressive scene.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

DIFFICULTIES WITH SNOW-SHOES,

CHAPTER XL

Religious processions — Costumes of the peasants — A Russian holiday — Drunken-
ness— Prejudices of the Old Believers — Field-work — House-building — New
birds — The Siberian chiffchaff — Prices of provisions — Arrival of waders.

THE 21st of May was St. Michael's Day, one of the greatest
holidays in this country. A long procession of " Old
Believers," consisting mostly of women and children carrying
banners and pictures, wended its way through the town.
The women were dressed in their best, and decked with
all the jewelry that they possessed, some of which was
very ancient and valuable. Many of the dresses, too, were
antique ; heirlooms handed down from mother to daughter.

I

ii4 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xi.

Some of these were gorgeous — none were vulgar — the colours
being always sober, rich, and clear. The wealthier peasants'
wives and daughters were arrayed in velvet and gold, silk
and satin, those of the poorer in linen and cotton, almost
entirely of Eussian manufacture. The women, as a rule,
wore the " roobahkah," which is simply a shirt put over
the fur " malitza," coming down to within a few inches of
the ground ; their cJiaussures consisted of Wellington boots,
and their headdress of an orientally-coloured handkerchief,
tied behind. We had already noticed this Eastern taste
for colour among the peasantry. A few days before,
an imposing wedding procession had passed our window.
The larger number of the party was on horseback, two on
each horse. All were brightly dressed : the men wore knots
of ribbons on their shoulders ; the women, gaily apparelled,
had on various and curious head-dresses, ornamented with
gold braid. Yet, for all their brilliancy, the colours did not
look garish, a little touch of grey being always introduced
to subdue the effect.

On St. Michael's Day it is customary to make presents to
the Church. The peasants brought various sorts of offerings,
cows, sheep, gloves, ribbons, &c., which were afterwards sold
by auction. Then the afternoon was spent in merry-making.
As is too often the case on a Eussian holiday, the revellers
all got more or less drunk.

We found the condition of things wonderfully altered at
Ust-Zylma by the breaking up of the ice of the Zylma and
the Pishma. Despite the map, the latter river flows into
the Petchora, and is not a tributary of the Zylma. The

CHAP. xr. PLOUGHING. 115

thaw of the two rivers together had been too much for
the Petchora. The ice was broken up for three or four
versts on either side of the town; most of it had disap-
peared, it might be under the other ice. Already several
boats were out, and the men were fishing in open water.
The breaking-up of the ice went on steadily for days. By
the 25th of May the great river was entirely free. Summer
had come upon them as suddenly as usual, and the people
were hard at work ; the women and children carting manure
on the land, using sledges, although the snow had disap-
peared, except where it lay in drifts ; the men breaking
up the ground with an antediluvian-looking plough, sowing
corn broadcast, or harrowing in the seed with a wooden-
toothed harrow.

A good deal of building was also going on. The year
before, the peasants had made large earnings out of the
fisheries, and were now spending larger sums than usual
in erecting houses. We found the demand for labour was
great, and wages were high. Few men could be got under
10s. per week. We spent our days, as usual, on the look-out
for the arrival of new migratory birds, in watching the
habits of those at hand, and in adding to our collection.
We saw no snow-buntings after the 18th ; the merlins dis-
appeared with them. Nor did we see any gulls after the
the 21st. The shore-larks and the Lapland buntings were
also growing scarce. Occasionally small flocks of them would
appear in the fields behind the house, sometimes so busy
feeding as to allow us to approach very near them.

On the 21st of May we were surprised to find a pair of

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP, xr,

wheatears.* In England they are the earliest birds of passage
to arrive in spring, but of course they winter farther south
than the snow-buntings and shore-larks, and we might reason-
ably expect them to arrive later in such northerly breeding-
grounds.

On the 22nd we added another familiar British migrant
to our list, the tree pipit,t a bird which usually arrives rather
late with us. A more important addition to our list was,
however, the Siberian chiffchafT,J a little warbler which was

* The wheatear (Saxicola cenanthe,
Linn.) afterwards became rather com-
mon at Ust-Zylma. Farther north it
was rarer, but we saw it as far as
Dvoinik. In the British Islands the
wheatear is one of the earliest summer
migrants, arriving on the moors about
the middle of March. This species
breeds throughout Central and Northern
Europe as far north as land exists,
extending westwards as far as Green-
land, and eastwards across Siberia into
Alaska. In winter it is found in
Northern Africa, and probably Central
Africa ; the Asiatic birds migrating to
Mongolia, Northern India, and Persia.

t The tree pipit (Anthus trivialis,
Linn.) is a common summer visitant
to the British Islands, and to the
northern and central portions of Europe
and Asia, as far east as the watershed
of the Yenesay and the Lena. As we
only met with one example in the
valley of the Petchora, in latitude 65£°,
we were probably somewhat beyond
the ordinary limit of its northern
range. It passes through Southern
Europe on migration, wintering in

North Africa, and having been met with
as far south as Kaffirland. Eastwards
it has been recorded from Persia and
India ; in the latter countiy it has,
however, generally been confounded
with a nearly allied species, Anthus
maculatus (Hodgs.), which is also found
in Eastern Siberia, China, and Japan,
and differs in being much greener on
the back, and more spotted on the
under parts.

J The Siberian chiffchaff (Phyllo-
scopus tristis, Blyth) winters in the
plains of India and Beloochistan. A
few remain to breed in the Alpine
districts of the Himalayas and the
Karakorum mountains, whilst the main
body passes through Turkestan on
migration to their summer quarters
in Siberia, which extend from the val-
ley of the Petchora to Lake Baical.
We found it abundant on the willow-
covered islands of the delta of the
Petchora, and in 1877 I took several
of its nests and eggs in the valley of
the Yenesay. It is very similar in
size and in the proportion of its prima-
ries to the European chiffchafF, but the

CHAP. XI.

SIBERIAN STONECHAT.

117

frequenting some low willows, uttering a plaintive call-note,
a single note repeated at intervals. We were under the im-
pression that we were adding a new bird to the European
list, but we afterwards found that our discovery had been
forestalled by M. Meves, of Stockholm, who had found
it some years previously in the government of Perm. A
third specimen which we added to our list was a skylark.*
On our return home we found that M. Znaminsky had also
been out shooting, and had bagged some very interesting
birds for us ; five green wagtails, three meadow pipits, two
red- throated pipits, and a stonechat,f the latter not the
European but the Indian species, and a new and interesting
addition to the European fauna. M. Znaminsky's hunting-
ground had been a marshy piece of land just behind the
town, sprinkled over with small spruce firs, bushes of stunted
birch, juniper, and dwarf rhododendrons (Ledum palustre).
To this spot we betook ourselves the next morning, and
found it to be a favourite resting-place of migratory birds.

latter is much greener above and much
yellower underneath, and has dark
brown instead of black legs.

* The skylark (Alauda arvensis,
Linn.) is found all over the1 palaearctic
region, from the British Islands east-
wards into Sibeiia and North China,
being a resident in the temperate
regions ; the Arctic birds migrating in
autumn to South Europe, North Africa,
North-West India, and North China.
We only met with two examples, and
therefore conclude that we were beyond
its ordinary breeding-range.

t The Siberian stonechat (Pratincola
maura, Pall.) differs from the British
and European species in having a pure
white unspotted rump and nearly black
axillaries. The eastern form, found by
us in Europe for the first time, breeds
in the southern Arctic and northern
temperate regions, from the valley of
Petchora eastwards to the Pacific,
wintering in Persia, India, Burmah,
and South China. In the valley of the
Petchora we did not see them farther
north than latitude 66°.

u8

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XI.

We shot a red-throated pipit on the ground, solitary among
a company of meadow pipits. We secured a green wagtail
and a short-eared owl.* In that favoured spot the willow
warblers congregated and were in full song ; the blue-throated
warblers were also there, but their song was not so full ; it
resembled sometimes the warble of the pipit, and sometimes
that of the whitethroat. We secured, besides, a brace of
golden plover and a reed-bunting.

During the afternoon we visited the skirts of the pine-
forest in the valley, and there I shot two male wheatears.
The day before a male and female wheatear had flown past
me, and perched on the summit of. a tall pine. Out of a
spruce fir in the wood we now heard a loud, clear " chiff-
cheff-chaff." We thought it was the cry of the chiffchaff ;
but we failed to find the bird. Shortly after we heard a
warbler singing. For a moment we fancied it was a willow-

O O

wren ; but before the song was half finished, we felt convinced
that we were unacquainted with it. It was not unlike the
chiff-cheff-chaff of our bird when it makes the third variation
it occasionally does in its notes ; but these notes were more
musical, repeated rapidly without intermission, running into

* The short-eared owl (Asia brachy-
otus, Forst.) is a circumpolar bird, and
is principally a winter visitant to the
British Islands, a few, however, re-
maining to breed. It is found in sum-
mer in North Europe, but is only a
winter visitor to South Europe and
Africa, where it has occurred as far
south as Natal.- Eastwards it is found
throughout Siberia, passing through

Turkestan on migration, wintering in
Persia, India, Burmah, and South China.
On the American continent it breeds in
various parts of Canada and the United
States and in winter has been found
as far south as Chili and the Falkland
Islands. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not meet with it much beyond
the Arctic circle.

CHAP. XI.

PINE GROSBEAK.

119

a song. This bird was also perching in a spruce fir, but a
long shot brought it down. It proved to be the Siberian
chiffchaff. For days afterwards we heard several of these
birds singing, and, on further study of their note, we found
it very distinct from the one of the chiffchaff. That of our
bird is not badly represented by its name, with an equal
accent on both syllables. The note of the Siberian chiffchaff is
better represented by the word " chiv'it," with a decided accent
on the first syllable. It is seldom uttered singly, but generally
repeated " chiv-it, chiv-et," or oftener "chiv-it," followed by
two notes of its song. The bird seemed very partial to the spruce
fir, perching on its topmost bough. In comparing its habits and
those of the willow- warbler, we found the Siberian chiffchaff
easy to shoot, while the former was as wild as possible.

Another song that greatly roused our curiosity was a
melodious whistle, reminding us both of the song of the
blackbird and of the redwing. We expected the songster
would turn out to be some rare Siberian thrush. The bird
was by no means shy, so we had no difficulty in following its
song, and in approaching within easy shot, as it perched
sometimes on the top, sometimes near the summit of a
spruce fir. Once we observed it hopping on the ground.
We obtained six specimens, and were somewhat disappointed
to find such melodious and thrush-like notes proceeded from
the pine grosbeak.*

* The pine grosbeak (Pinicola enu-
cleator, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird
visiting the British Islands somewhat
irregularly during winter. It breeds

in the high north of the pine region,
migrating southwards only in severe
weather, being a more or less accidental
visitor to most parts of Central and

120 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. XL

It was a curious fact that the day following, on returning
to the spot where we had seen and shot so many various
birds, we found it deserted ; there were nothing but willow-
warblers on it. Ked-throated pipits passed over singly and
in flocks; but none seemed disposed to alight. In a plan-
tation hard by, we heard a chaffinch sing ; but we did not get
a shot at it. We fell in there with a small flock of bram-
blings,* and secured a male that was not yet in full breeding
plumage. On the following day a thick mist came up the
Petchora, which cleared up about noon, and was followed by
a north-west breeze with gleams of sunshine and threatenings
of rain. Birds were few and sang little, the note of the
warblers being almost the only one we heard. We had an
excellent opportunity of identifying a white-tailed eagle,
that came almost within shot of us. Two cranes t passed

Southern Europe. Eastwards it winters j North China, and Japan. In the Valley
in South Siberia, occasionally wander- | of the Petchora we found it an abundant
ing as far as the northern states of j species up to the Arctic circle.
North America. In the valley of the j f The common crane (Grus com-

munis, Bechst.) is confined to the

Petchora we did not observe it farther
north than latitude 65J°.

* The brambling (Fringilla monti-
fringilla, Linn.) appears to be confined

eastern hemisphere, being replaced in
America by two allied species, Grus
canadiensis (Temm.) and Grus frater-

to the eastern hemisphere, visiting the j culus (Baird). The increase of popu-

British Islands in flocks during the ! lation has caused the crane to become

winter. It breeds throughout the north- i little more than an accidental visitor

ern portions of the palsearctic region j to the British Islands. It formerly

frequenting the pine, and especially j bred throughout the whole of Europe,

the birch forests at or near the limit | wherever marshes of sufficient extent

of forest growth, wintering in most j and solitude were to be found, which

parts of Central and Southern Europe, i principally remain at the present time

and occasionally crossing the Mediter- f in Spain, Arctic Europe, and Turkey,

ranean. Eastwards it winters in India, | It winters in the basin of the Mediter-

CHAP. XI.

PRICE OF PROVISIONS.

121

over us, and I recognised them as birds I had seen two or
three days before. By this time all the hooded crows and
magpies had gone into the woods to breed, and the town was
deserted by them. During the week there had apparently
been an arrival of house-sparrows in Ust-Zylma, for they
abounded in M. Znaminski's yard. Strangely enough, we
could not meet with any in other parts of the town.

On the 26th the weather changed ; a cold north-east wind
blew. It was a day unpropitious to bird-shooting. So little
did we anticipate meeting with any, that we spent the
morning in buying provisions for our journey. It may be
useful to record the prices we paid : —

Salt beef 1.70 roubles per pud. (IJd. per Ib.)
Butter 6.50 „ „ (4|d. per Ib).

Tea 2 „ per Ib. (5s. per Ib.)

Coffee 0.55 „ „ (Is. 4d. per Ib).

We also bought a nyelma, or white salmon, for our present
use. It weighed 15 Ibs., and cost 10 copecks per Ib. We
were told that, later on, the price would be 5 copecks per Ib.
This fish sometimes reaches the weight of 60 Ibs. We found
it very nice eating, but we failed to recognise its boasted
superiority to salmon. We acknowledge, however, that the
cooking may have been in fault. In its stomach were several
small fishes.

In the afternoon we went out in the cold wind, not expect-
ing to shoot anything ; but to our astonishment we found

ranean. Eastwards it ranges to Kam-
tchatka, wintering in Persia, India,
and China. In the valley of the Pet-

chora we did not discover its breeding-
grounds, and met with it only at Ust-
Zylma on migration.

122

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XI.

a number of new birds in the town itself. We secured a
wood sandpiper * out of a flock of four ; a Temminck's stint,t
of which there were several. We saw a barn-swallow { twice,
and shot a pair of ringed plovers. § We had also an

* The wood sandpiper (Totarws
glareola, Linn.) is confined to the
palaearctic region during the breeding
season, being known in the British
Islands as a somewhat rare visitor
during migration, and having once
been known to breed near Newcastle.
It breeds in various places in Northern
and Eastern Europe, including Holland,
Denmark, Scandinavia, North Germany,
and the whole of Eussia. Eastwards
it is found throughout Siberia and
Turkestan. It winters in South Africa,
Beloochistan, India, Burmah, and the
islands of the Malay Archipelago, pass-
ing through China and Japan on migra-
tion. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not see it farther north than
latitude 68°.

t Temminck's stint (Tringa tem-
mincki, Leisl.) is confined to the eastern
hemisphere, breeding only on the tun-
dras beyond the limit of forest growth.
In the British Islands it is a compara-
tively rare bird, only found on migra-
tion. It winters in the Mediterranean,
principally on its southern shores, and
it extends as far south as the Sahara.
It probably extends eastwards in the
breeding season as far as Kamtchatka,
and winters in India and China.

J The common swallow (Hirundo
rustica, Linn.), one of our most familiar
British birds, breeds throughout the
whole of Europe and J^orth Africa,

migrating to South Africa in winter,
a few only remaining in the oases of
the Sahara. Eastwards it breeds in
Northern and Central Asia, wintering
in India and the islands of the Malay
Archipelago. The Eastern form has
been described as a different species,
Hirundo gntturalis (Scop.), and may be
considered as a subspecies connecting
the European bird with the very nearly
allied American form,ffirundo horreoram
(Barton). In the valley of the Petchora
we were probably at the extreme
northern limit of the range of this
bird, which only accidentally wanders
as far north as the Arctic circle.

§ The ringed plover (/Egialitis hia-

\ ticula, Linn.) is confined to the western

j portion of the palsearctic region, not

I having been found farther east than

! the watershed of the Lena in the north

I and Turkestan and Persia in the south.

! In the British Islands it is common and

I resident. Northwards it is found as

i far as the mainland extends, and also in

Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, Iceland, and

Greenland. It does not go into South

Africa. It frequents the seashore as

well as the inland rivers and lakes, and

is a more or less partial resident

throughout the greater part of its

range ; in the extreme north being

found in the summer onlj, and in the

extreme south in winter alone.

CHAP. xi. OYSTER-CATCHER. 123

excellent view of two oyster-catchers.* All these were new
arrivals. Many green wagtails were to be seen, and we shot
four males and two females. In the village we met a shore-
lark, the first we had seen for many days in the streets.

The unfavourable-looking day proved one of the most
interesting we had yet had.

* The oyster-catcher (ffccmatopus
ostralegus, Linn.) appears to be confined
to the eastern hemisphere, only acci-
dentally straying as far as Greenland ;
being represented on the American
continent by a nearly allied species,
Hcematopus palliat'is (Temm.). The
Arctic circle appears to be the northern
limit of its range, and it does not ap-
pear to visit South Africa, Australia,
or New Zealand, being represented in

the two latter countries by a nearly
allied species, ffcematopus longirostris
(Gmel.). Throughout the greater part
of its range the oyster-catcher is a more
or less partial resident, being a summer
visitant only in the extreme north, and
a winter visitant in the extreme south.
In the valley of the Petchora we found
them in small numbers up to about
twenty miles within the Arctic circle.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

WILLOW GEOUSE.

CHAPTER XII.

Samoyede names — The Swedish mocking-bird — Toads — Birds resting on migration
— Sparrow-hawk — The Petchora free from ice — A new song — Ceremony of
blessing the steamer — Rambles in the woods — Arrival of the mosquitoes.

WHILST we were waiting for the flood in the Petchora to
subside sufficiently to make it safe for us to proceed down
the river in a small boat, we met with a Samoyede somewhat
more intelligent than usual, and from him we were glad to
have an opportunity of learning the names of various articles
connected with reindeer and sledging which we had collected.

CHAP. xii. REINDEER HARNESS. 125

It is somewhat difficult to express the exact sound in English
characters, since almost every Samoyede word is pronounced
either nasally or gutturally.

The Samoyede for sledge is khan, the kh pronounced like
cli in German, and the n like n in Spanish.

A reindeer is tu, the u like the German ii. There are
three sorts of reindeer, kho-ra tu, the entire male reindeer ;
khdb'-tu, the cut reindeer ; and yah' til, the female reindeer.
These adjectives are also used in reference to horses and
other cattle.

The piece of leather over the body of the animal, which
takes the place of our saddle, is called the yode'-ye-nd. The
narrower band round the neck, in place of the collar, is the
pode'-yur. The single trace attached to the lower part of the
collar, and passing between the legs under the body, is called
the sd. The blind pulley, or pulley block without a pulley
through which it passes, is the pydt-say. The halter, or
bridle without a bit, is the sydhn. The halter of the leading
reindeer is the nyes'-mm-dye sydhn. The halter of the other
reindeer is the pye-ldy' sydhn. The rein with which the
leading reindeer is guided is the met'-d-nye. The hook on
the side of the saddle-band on which the rein rests is the
khdl-soo-ld. The swivel or universal joint by which the rein
is attached to the halter is the silr-nye. A. button which
serves to fasten the trace to the collar, or the belly-band to
the saddle, is the pay'-sik. The long pole with which the
reindeer are driven is the toor, and the bone or ivory nob at
the end of it the toor-mdJiT. The rein connecting the leading
reindeer with the one next to it, is the poo-i-nyd. A lasso is

126 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xn.

called a teen-zdy', and the bone noose through which it runs
is the sah'-mik. The tent or choom is the myati-kdn, and a
dog is called a vo-i-nye-ko. The Samoyede who gave us
this information was one of the poorer men of his tribe. All
the richer families had migrated north with their herds of
reindeer before the snow had melted. The poorer families
remained behind, hanging on to the skirts of the Eussians,
helping them with their fishing, and receiving for pay such
food as their employers chose to give them. One cannot
help pitying these poor people. Their nation is gradually
dying out. Like the North American Indians, they are
doomed to destruction, for, like them, they cannot refuse
spirits. In the struggle for existence they have no chance
with the cunning Eussian, who in all matters of business
has no more conscience than a Greek or a Jew.

During this time the birds were few. On the 27th we
took a walk in the forest, and the only ones that were singing
were the willow warblers ; an occasional pine grosbeak break-
ing in now and then. We secured, however, a pair of
bramblings out of a flock. We shot a blue-throated warbler,
a yellow-hammer, a female reed-bunting, a Siberian jay, a
stonechat, and a red-throated pipit, and out of a number we
brought down a brace of golden plover. We saw a solitary
shore-lark, a gull (apparently the common species), and a
fine male bullfinch. In the town we got a couple of wood-
sandpipers ; then the green wagtails were common, and we
came upon a large party of Lapland buntings, all apparently
females. In the evening the wind dropped, and a sharp
frost set in. At midnight, when we went to bed, the

CHAP. XII.

BLUE-THROATED WARBLER.

127

thermometer marked only 30°. The next day was bright, but
cold, with a light north wind blowing. We went for another
long tramp through the pine woods : very few birds were to
be seen. We shot a pair of grosbeaks, a fieldfare, and a
blue-throated warbler.* We saw a Siberian jay, for whose
nest we had a long search, which resulted in our finding
two old ones. Whether these were nests of the Siberian
jay or of the pine grosbeak, we could not, however, deter-
mine. Twice we heard the note of the Siberian chiffchaff,
but we could not see or get a shot at the birds.

The smart frost returned during the night. In the
morning, however, the wind veered round to the east, and it
was warm ; in the afternoon it was very hot. Five hours'
hard walking through the woods in the early morning
resulted in nothing. I did not bring down a single bird.
My companion shot two blue-throated warblers ; they had
now grown as common as the willow warbler. The blue-
throated warbler is not inaptly called the Swedish mocking-
bird. Sometimes it is shy and retiring, seeking food in the
densest thickets and bushes ; haunting the marshy grounds,
sprinkled over with small spruce fir, dwarf willows and
juniper. But when newly arrived from its winter home,

* The blue-throated warbler (Cyane-
cula suecica, Linn.) has only twice been
met with in the British Islands. It
breeds within the Arctic circle, or at
high elevations above the limit of
forest growth, in both Europe and
Asia, occasionally crossing Behring's
Straits into Alaska. In Western
Kurope it is replaced by a nearly allied

species, C. kucocyana (Brehm.) which
differs in having the red spot in the
centre of the blue throat replaced by
a white one. The blue-throat winters
in North Africa as far south as Abys-
sinia, India, and South China. In the
valley of the Petchora we did not ob-
serve it farther north than latitude
68°.

128 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP, xn

and beginning to sing, it is an easy bird to see, and not
difficult to shoot. On its first arrival, it often warbles in an
undertone so low, that you fancy the sound must be muffled
by the thick tangle of branches in which you think the bird
is concealed, while all the time it is perched on high upon
the topmost spray of a young fir, this very conspicuousness
causing him to escape detection for the moment. His first
attempts at singing are harsh and grating, like the notes of
the sedge warbler, or the still harsher ones of the white-
throat ; these are followed by several variations in a louder
and rather more melodious tone, repeated over and over
again, somewhat in the fashion of a song-thrush. After this
you might fancy the little songster was trying to mimic the
various alarm-notes of all the birds he can remember — the
" chiz-zit " of the wagtail, the " tip-tip-tip " of the black-
bird, and especially the " whit-whit " of the chaffinch. As
he improves in voice, he sings louder and longer, until at
last he almost approaches the nightingale in the richness of
the melody that he pours forth. Sometimes he will sing
as he flies upward, descending with expanded wings and tail,
to alight on the highest bough of some low tree, almost
exactly as the tree pipit does. When the females have
arrived, there comes at the end of his song the most metallic
notes I have ever heard a bird utter. It is a sort of " ting-
ting," resembling the sound produced by the hitting of a
suspended bar of steel with another piece of the same metal.
Our afternoon walk was more fruitful of result than had
been our morning's. I had followed for some time the shore
of the overflowing Petchora, when, after having bagged a

CHAP. xii. RED-THROATED PIPITS. 129

brace of wood-sandpipers and a ring-dotterel, I crossed a sand-
bank to a marshy pool. The muffled croak of numerous toads
or frogs kept up a sound resembling that of gurgling water.
On my approach the whole tribe disappeared and hid in the
mud. After I had waited a while, three slowly put up their
noses above the surface. I fired ineffectually upon the
reptiles, but I started seven or eight sandpipers and a red-
throated pipit, upon which I set off at once in pursuit
of the last bird. I presently found myself on a marshy
piece of ground, covered with grassy hillocks, in the narrow
trenches between which pipits were sitting. As I walked
on they rose at my feet on all sides, and I soon had half-a-
dozen within shot. I brought down a bird with each barrel,
re-loaded, and, as I walked up to my victims, there rose
between me and them two or three pipits, who evidently
preferred being shot to being trod upon. Unfortunately I
had but two cartridges left, so, bringing down another brace,
I went back to our quarters for more ammunition. On
returning to the open marshy ground, I found the birds still
there, and very soon secured another half-dozen. My last
shot was a double one. As I was getting over the soil upon
which some pipits had been sitting, a hawk rushed past
clutching a bird in its claws. A dozen wagtails set off after
it in vociferous pursuit, i followed more quietly, and soon
had the satisfaction of laying a male sparrow-hawk* upon

* The sparrow - hawk (Accipiter
nisus, Linn.) is a resident in the British
Islands, inhabiting the whole of Europe
and Northern Asia. In the extreme

north it is a migratory bird, wintering
in North Africa, India, and China. In
the valley of the Petchora we only
identilied one example at Ust-Zylma.

130 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xn.

its back, with a half-eaten sparrow beside it. Some wag-
tails remained perched upon the railing behind which the
hawk had retired to finish the devouring of its prey. They
uttered cries, which might be interpreted either as doubting
the supposed escape of their foe, or as a paean of rejoicing
over its downfall. The sight of their enemy lying motion-
less on its back rendered them deaf to the sound of my gun,
and blind to my presence. They remained undismayed
within a few yards of me, not stirring until I had packed
away the hawk. At this juncture my companion came up.
He had been more fortunate than I had been, in his raid
upon the reptiles. He had secured a couple, which we
found to be a species of toad, with whitish and black spots
and stripes on the back. At this pool I now secured a
Temminck's stint, and my companion another pipit, making
the eleventh shot that day. For weeks we had never suc-
ceeded in shooting more than one out of a flock. They had
abounded during the last fortnight in the fields and in the
open ground about the town. We had seen hundreds, and
yet, during those two weeks, we had not secured more than
five males and one female ; now in a couple of hours we
had bagged ten males and one female out of a single
flock. We had found them wild, and seldom disposed to
settle on the ground. It was curious that these pipits
should have been so different from the others ; but what
was still more curious and interesting was their behaviour
during the raid we made upon them. After repeated shots,
bringing down several of their numbers, the remainder
would get up, settle on the railings, on the adjoining

CHAP. XII.

THE RUFF.

house-roof, or perch upon the slender branches of a willow-
tree hard by.

The same day I saw again the barn-swallow, which seemed
to be the only representative of its species at Ust-Zylma. I
watched a flock of shore-larks and Lapland buntings on the
stubble. As a rule they ran along the ground like the
wagtail, but I also marked both birds hopping for some
distance.

For the first time, on Sunday, 30th of May, the Petchora
was free from ice. The steady march-past of the frozen
blocks had lasted just one week. The wind that day was
warm, blowing from the south, but the sky was cloudy. A
peasant brought us three young Siberian jays, and another
rowed across the river, the bearer of a ruff,* the first we
had yet seen ; and of some eggs, six duck's eggs, doubt-
less those of the pintail, and four of the hooded crow.
The following day the warm south wind continued, with
sunshine and cloud. We took a long round in the valley,
where a few days before we had seen so many Siberian
ohiffchaffs. The blue-throated warblers were singing lustily,
but we failed to hear or see the bird we were specially in
search of. As we were making our way home, through a

* The ruff (Machetes pugnax, Linn.)
is confined to the eastern hemisphere.
In the British Islands it is rapidly
disappearing before the advance of
cultivation and drainage, and is now
rarely met with except on the spring
and autumn migrations. It breeds
throughout Northern Scandinavia,
Holland, and North Germany, win-

tering in Africa as far south as the
Cape. Eastwards it breeds throughout
Siberia as far as the valley of the
Yenesay, wintering in India and Ceylon.
The records of its occurrence in China,
Japan, and Kamtchatka appear to be
doubtful. In the valley of the Petchora
we found it as far north as latitude

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XII.

swamp thickly studded over with willows, birch, and fir, I
heard a song quite new to me. It closely resembled that of
the yellow-hammer, whose note is popularly supposed to say
" litj lit, lit, little bread and no cheese." This bird cried
" lit, lit, lit, in as tay." I shot the strange songster, and
brought down my first little bunting.* Twice during the
.day we visited the marshy spot, upon which forty-eight
hours previously the red-throated pipits had swarmed, but we
found it utterly deserted. The flock we had come upon was
one evidently resting after a long stage of migration, and
that had now resumed its northward progress.

The next day a second visit to the same spot brought the
same result ; not a red-throated pipit was to be seen upon it.
On the 1st of June I saw7 a black scoter f for the first time,
flying down the Petchora close past Sideroff's steamer. I

* The little bunting (Emberiza
pusilla. Pall.) can only be considered
as an accidental visitor to the British
Islands, breeding at or near the northern
limit of the pine region from the valley
of the Dvina eastwards to the Pacific.
It is a comparatively rare visitor in
winter to South-Eastern Europe, migra-
ting principally into India and China.
We did not succeed in obtaining its
eggs, which are almost unknown in
collections, and it was not until I
visited the valley of the Yenesay in
1877 that authentic eggs of this bird
were brought to this country. We
observed it as far north as latitude
68°, where, however, it had become
extremely rare.

•f The black scoter ((Edemia nigra,

Linn.) is confined to the eastern hemi-
sphere, although it is replaced on the
American continent by a very closely
allied species, (Edemia americanj,
(Swains.). It breeds abundantly in
many parts of Scotland, and is a regu-
lar winter visitant to Ireland and
England. Its breeding-range may be
said to extend from the Arctic circle to
beyond the northern limit of forest
growth. In winter it is found in various
parts of Europe, occasionally crossing
the Mediterranean, whilst in Asia it
has been recorded at that season of the
year from the Caspian Sea and Japan,
the American form only apparently
migrating farther south to China. In
the valley of the Petchora we observed
this bird as far as the coast.

CHAP. xii. BLESSING THE STEAMER. 133

was on deck at the time, one of a crowd waiting to witness
the ceremony of sprinkling the vessel with holy water ere it
set out on its summer voyage. The ship had arrived the
evening before, from its winter quarters in the bay behind
Habariki. The ceremony was effective. Flags were flying,
cannons firing, guests assembled ; a breakfast was prepared,
then came the procession of robed priests, candles burning
and censers swinging ; prayers were chanted, the crucifix was
kissed, and then the sprinkling began. Everybody and
everything was sprinkled with holy water from a rod, appa-
rently made of fine gilt wire. The paddle-boxes were
sprinkled, the deck was sprinkled fore and aft, the cabins
were sprinkled, the sailors were sprinkled ; the captain and
the engineer each received a whisk from the brush, which
made them wince, for at that moment a detachment of ice,
probably from the Ussa, was passing down the river, chilling
the water not a little. Then all was over except the break-
fast, when a practical joke was played upon the guests. A
course of bear-flesh was served up incognito, so deliciously
cooked that all ate of it with gusto, suspecting nothing.
Our amiable friend, the wife of the public prosecutor, alone
suspected, but wisely kept her counsel.

After our dissipation we spent the evening packing skins,
and retired to our hammocks about midnight ; but whether
owing to Captain Arendt's hospitality or to the effect of the
arsenic in the skins, we could not sleep. At three o'clock,
finding the sun had been up some time, we bethought our-
selves that we could not do better than follow his example,
so we accordingly arose; then shouldering our guns, we

134 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xn.

marched off to the Siberian chiffchaff valley. We chose
good positions in the wood, and disposed ourselves to watch
and wait. Before long I heard the distant " chivit " of the
much longed-for bird, rising from the bottom of the valley.
I pressed forward cautiously through the trees, and caught
sight of the little warbler's white throat glistening in the
sunshine, as it uttered its unpretentious song, perched on the
top of a pine. I could not approach it nearer than within
sixty yards without making a considerable detour to avoid
the stream with its high mud walls, crumbling down on all
sides, so I risked a shot. It was too far and missed. Mean-
while a second Siberian chiffchaff set up its "chivit." I
started off in pursuit of the cry and soon came within shot
of the bird, perched, as usual, on the summit of a spruce fir.
I fired, ran to the tree, searched diligently through the moss
at the foot, but found nothing. Whistling for my companion
to come up, I began to run the tree over with my telescope,
when, to my great delight, I caught sight of my bird lying
dead on a spray within six inches of the top. We saw no
more of these birds during the morning, but shot two wheat-
ears that had by this time grown common, a pair of blue-
throated warblers and a willow wren. Nearly all the green
wagtails which we saw had more or less brown on the breast ;
they were doubtless last year's birds, that had not yet assumed
the full mature plumage. On our return a peasant brought
us three young ravens and some duck's eggs, probably pin-
tail's. That day I recorded in my journal, with many
groans, the arrival of the mosquitoes. Horrid-looking

CHAP. xii. MOSQUITOES. 135

beasts, with bodies a third of an inch long, monsters, the
Culex damnabilis of Kae, with proboscis, " infernali veneno
munita " I foresaw that we should have opportunities
enough to study the natural history of these blood-thirsty
creatures to our heart's dicontent.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

THE FLOODED BANKS OF THE KIVEU.

CHAPTER XIII.

Trip to Habariki — Forest scenery — Tarns in the woods — Changeable weather —
New birds identified in the forests — Golden eagle — Osprey — The hobby — The
cuckoo — Yellow-headed wagtail — Bohemian waxwing — Great snipe — Terek
sandpiper — Goosander — Smew — Black-throated diver.

WE were fast asleep the next evening when we were roused
up by Captain Engel's invitation to go down with him by
the steamer to Habariki to stay there three days. We had
barely time to dress and fill our pockets with cartridges.
The current of the river was in our favour ; it was running at
the rate of four miles an hour, and we accomplished the
twenty-seven miles in two hours. Arrived at Habariki we
scarcely recognised the place again. The snow had dis-

CHAP. xiii. FOREST SCENERY. 137

appeared, all but a patch or two on the Timanski hills, fifty
miles off. The Petchora, freed from ice, had risen some
twenty feet or more, and had flooded the island in front of
the villagp, the willows and pine-tree tops being just visible
above the surface. Inland, half the country at least was
under water, a vast network of lakes and swamps with the
forest between. In some places the skirts themselves of the
forest were flooded. As we had not brought our wading boots
we had to confine our explorations to the woods. These
proved an inexhaustible source of interest to us, and one in
no wise lacking in variety. There was much beauty in these
woods. Under foot spread a carpet of soft green moss and
lichens, the thick moss predominating in the older and thicker
parts of the forest, while the reindeer moss and the many-
coloured lichens abounded in the younger and more open
woods. Stray shrubs of arbutus and rhododendron, bushes
of bilberry, crowberry, cranberry, the fruit of which was pre-
served by seven months' frost, clumps of carices and other
vegetation decked the shady aisles. The monotony of the
great pine forest was varied by the delicate hues of willow
and alder thickets, by plantations of young pines and firs, by
clumps of tall spruce and haggard old larches, while here
and there a fine birch spread abroad its glossy foliage, or a
gaunt Scotch fir extended wide its copper-coloured arms.
All around lay strewn trunks and branches of timber, fallen
or felled, in every stage of decomposition, from the hoary
log, moss-covered and turned to tinder, to the newly-lopped
branches of some lofty forest patriarch, whose magnificent
boughs had been wantonly cut up to furnish firewood for

138

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

SiderofFs steamer. The most curious features in these forests
were open and slightly hollow places, like tarns or half dried-
up tarns, the bed carpeted with moss and a network of last
year's Potamogeton. The shallow places were quite dried up,
but the deeper ones had still a lakelet glistening in the
centre. These hollows are doubtless filled with water when
the Petchora reaches its highest flood point in June, and
many are not yet dried up when an early winter sets in, and
the remaining water becomes ice-bound.

Our three days' stay at Habariki was marked by very
variable weather. Thursday was calm and warm, with bright
sunshine. Friday, bitterly cold, with a strong gale from the
north, and only occasional gleams of sunshine, and slight
storms of rain and snow. On Saturday morning the gale had
subsided, and the greater part of the day the sun shone, but
a violent hailstorm fell during the afternoon, and in the
evening we had a dead calm. Notwithstanding the generally
unfavourable weather we saw a vast number of birds, and
added to our lists in these three days more than half as
many species as we had seen during the whole of our stay
at Ust-Zylma.

We saw several eagles, but one only near enough for iden-
tification. It showed no traces of white on the tail, and we
concluded it might be a golden-eagle or a white-tailed eagle
of the first year. We identified an osprey * as it flew past us

* The osprey (Pandion haliaetus,
Linn.) is a regular though rare visitor
to the British Islands during the spring
and autumn migrations. It is a circum-

polar bird, and may almost be said to
be cosmopolitan in its range, breeding
both in Europe, Asia, Africa, America
and Australia, and has been recorded

CHAP. XIII.

HOBBY.

139

overhead. We fired at it, and it dropped a large bunch of
damp moss, that it was doubtless carrying to its nest. On a
bare larch trunk towering high above the surrounding wood
we could see, about fifteen feet from the top, a large nest,
which we presumed was that of the osprey.

I rose a dark-winged hawk from the ground, which I have
no doubt was a hobby.* Some hours later we saw a similar
looking bird, perched high on the naked branch of a dead
larch ; a long shot brought it down. It proved a fine male
of this species.

Many of the ancient stems of the larches contained old
nest-holes of woodpeckers, and the bark of some trees was
riddled from top to bottom with small holes, evidently made
by these birds when feeding. One of our sailors shot a
male. We saw, soon after, a pair of three-toed woodpeckers,
but did not then succeed in securing one of them. On
another occasion, we heard the tapping sound of the wood-
pecker's beak ; a tap, then a slight pause, followed by a
rapid succession of taps, and after a second slight pause,
a final tap. I imitated the sound, as well as I could, with a
cartridge on the stock of my gun. The bird immediately
flew to a dead larch trunk, close to where we were standing,
and perched, its head thrown back listening, perhaps, some

from New Zealand. In the valley of
the Petchora we were only able to
identify it in latitude 65J°.

* The hobby (Falco subbuteo, Linn),
is a regular summer migrant to tem-
perate Europe and Asia, and still breeds
in the British Islands.. A few winter

in South Europe, but most appear to
migrate into Africa, occasionally stray-
ing as far as the Cape. Eastwards it
winters in India and South China. In
the valley of the Petchora we only met
with it in latitude 65£°.

140

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

fifty feet from the ground. In this position it fell to my
companion's gun. It was a female.

We heard the cuckoo's * familiar note repeatedly every day ;
the first time it was near midnight, soon after our arrival at
Habariki.

The hooded crow and magpie were as abundant as usual
in this part of Europe.

The Siberian jay was very common in the woods, and very
noisy ; all the more so, perhaps, for the number of young
birds among them. I saw on one occasion an old jay feeding
a young one. I shot the latter ; it was in the full plumage of
the first year. The old birds were very tame and easy to
secure ; their skins, however, were worthless, for they were
in full moult. The body bore no appearance of it, but the
wing and tail feathers were " in the pen." The flight of the
Siberian jay is noiseless, resembling somewhat that of the
owl, sailing with wings and tail expanded before alighting.
These birds like ascending from branch to branch, close by
the stem of a birch or fir. When they cannot hop from one
bough to another, they ascend the trunk in the fashion of
the woodpecker. This habit we both of us specially noted.
We did not hear their song, but they were constantly utter-
ing harsh loud cries ; the notes of some reminded us of those
of the peregrine at its nest ; I thought others resembled the

* The cuckoo (Cuculus canorus,
Linn.) is a summer visitor to the whole
of Europe, passing through North
Africa on migration, and wintering in
Central Africa. On the Asiatic conti-
nent it appears to be also a summer

visitor, but is found in the winter only
in Southern India, South China, and
the islands of the Malay Archipelago.
In the valley of the Fetchora we met
with it up to the Arctic Circle.

CHAP. xin. YELLOW-HEADED WAGTAIL. 141

scream of the woodpecker. During the season of incubation
the Siberian jay seemed shy and silent.

A flock of tree-sparrows was always to be seen among the
few houses in the village, sometimes perched on the railings,
at other times gathered in a bunch on the roofs. We saw
no evidence of their having begun to think about building.

The pine grosbeak was one of the commonest, if not the
commonest bird at Habariki. I shot a male, on the naked
trunk of a birch about nine feet from the ground ; it was
hopping round and round the stem, and when I aimed at it
I never dreamt of its being anything else than a small
spotted woodpecker.

The mealy redpole also was common,

The little bunting was not uncommon, but its shy and
retiring habits would often cause us to overlook it. We
rarely heard it sing, yet frequently noticed its quiet call-note.
We also often came upon it, feeding on the ground near the
swampy edge of the forest tarns, in company with yellow
wagtails, fieldfares, and bramblings.

We saw several reed-buntings, and shot a male. They
usually frequented the willows on the edges of the marshes
and lakes.

The green wagtail was common, and still kept together in
flocks ; we constantly saw them in trees.

The yellow-headed wagtail* was a bird we had neither of

* The yellow-headed wagtail (Bu- I apparently the westward limit of its

dytes citrculus, Pall.) has never been
found in the British Islands, the valleys
of the Petchora and the Volga being

range. It breeds in the Arctic regions,
extending northwards beyoud the limit
of forest growth, and in similar climates

142

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

us met with before. The alighting of a small party of five,
on an alder bush, surprised us. We secured a male, but
the remainder disappeared among some alders and willows
growing on an impassable piece of flooded land close to the
Petchora, which was also full of floating driftwood. So,
unfortunately, we saw them no more.

We noticed a few v^hite wagtails, principally near the
village.

Fieldfares were numerous, sometimes in flocks, generally
in pairs. They scarcely seemed to have yet begun to breed
in earnest. We had two nests brought us, however, each
containing one egg. We found plenty of old isolated nests,
but no traces of colonies. The fieldfares were singing far
more in the woods about Habariki than I had heard them
doing during the breeding season in Norway.

The redwing was decidedly commoner than the fieldfare,
and its rich wild notes constantly resounded in all parts of
the forest. Its usually plaintive whistle was only occasionally
heard, the note which it more frequently uttered resembled
rather that of a song thrush, but very short. We shot one, to
make sure that it was a bird of no other species. Its low
warble often came following the notes just mentioned ; but
sometimes it came without the preliminary note, and once we
heard it utter a loose alarm cry like that of the fieldfare.
It is evidently an earlier breeder than the latter bird. We
got four or five of its nests, containing four eggs each ; one

at high elevations in Cashmere and
near Lake Baikal, wintering in Beloo-
chistan, India, and China. In the valley

of the Petchora we found it breeding
from latitude 66° to latitude 68°.

CHAP. xiii. BIRDS. 143

had five eggs. We found one of the nests in a spruce-fir
built nine feet from the ground. As we did not see
the bird upon it, we cannot consider the fact of its being
the redwing's fully established; but in no instance did
we find a nest nearer than eighteen inches to the ground.
Nor is it likely that there would be any built lower
in a country periodically flooded. All the redwings were
in pairs ; we saw no signs whatever of their habits being
gregarious.

The blue-throated warbler was very common and tame*
allowing us to approach near as it sang, perched on a low
bush, or fed on the ground. It was in full voice, and the
variety of its notes formed a perfect medley of bird-music.
It frequented marshy ground, whether amongst alders and
willows, or in the forests of pines or other trees.

We saw several handsome male redstarts.

We came upon a pair or two of wheatears in the open
sandy pinewood near the village.

In the same locality we saw a few pairs of stonechats.
Willow warblers were very abundant. I heard at Habariki
for the second time, this bird utter a note different from any
I had heard in England. It is doubtless analogous to the
t-r-r-r of the chiffchaff, but it is very difficult to describe it
exactly on paper. The nearest letters denoting it are
perhaps z-z-z ; it reminded me very much of the spitting of
a cat. We heard the song and also the " chiv-it " of the
Siberian chiffchaff several times, and succeeded in shooting
one bird. When silent we always found it busily engaged
feeding like a tit, usually among spruce-firs.

144

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Lapp-tit,* we saw two pairs and a few solitary birds.
The note of the wax wing t had long been familiar to me, for

* The Lapp-titmouse (Parws cinctus,
Bodd.) has never been found in the
British Islands, but inhabits the Arctic
pine forests of Europe and Asia, wander-
ing southwards to a limited extent in
the depth of winter. The eastern form,
which has been described as a distinct
species by Sharpe and Dresser under
the name of Par us grisescens, differs
only in being slightly paler in colour
and less russet on the flanks, and is
certainly not deserving of specific rank,
the specimens which we obtained in the
valley of the Petchora being inter-
mediate between the two forms. The
eastern form is extremely abundant in
Siberia, and has been recorded from
North China, but not from Japan.

t The Bohemian waxwing (Ampelis
garrulus, Linn.) is only an accidental
visitor to the British Islands, appear-
ing, however, in some winters in large
numbers. It is a circumpolar bird,
usually breeding in the pine regions
at or near the Arctic Circle. This bird
is a very irregular migrant, wandering
southwards on the approach of cold
weather, and revisiting the north
whenever a thaw of sufficient length
occurs.

The winter of 1866-67 will long be
remembered by British ornithologists
as one of the great waxwing seasons.
The whole year 1866 (the year of the
cattle plague) was wet, the mild winter
at each end being scarcely distinguish-
able from the cold summer between.
On New Year's Day frost and heavy

snow set in. Early in November great
numbers of the Bohemian waxwing
made their appearance. The largest
flocks were seen in Norfolk. North of
that county many birds were shot at
Scarborough, Newcastle, Berwick, up to
Aberdeen and Inverness ; whilst south-
wards they were obtained at Dover and
Rye. I was fortunate enough to meet
with a small party of these interesting
strangers as I was walking down the
Glossop Road to business into Sheffield
on the morning of the 29th of December.
My attention was arrested by three or
four birds which flew across the road
and alighted in a laburnum tree in
Miss Ray's garden. I imagined from
their flight that they must be starlings,
but fancying that they showed white
marks on the wing, I had the curiosity
to step across the road to get a nearer
view of them. The tree on which they
alighted was only a few yards from the
road, and I watched them over the
wall for some time. I recognised
them at once by their crests. They
were very active, putting themselves
in all sorts of positions, and did not
seem at all disturbed by my scrutiny ;
and when at last they flew away, and
I turned round to continue my walk I
found that quite a small crowd had
collected behind me, one of whom
(apparently a Sheffield grinder, and
consequently well up in pigeons and
dogs) volunteered the information that
they were French starlings. Two
days later two specimens were shot

CHAP. XIII.

BOHEMIAN WAXWING.

'45

I had once kept a pair in a cage for some months. I was
delighted to hear it once more resounding from the lofty
sprnce and larch trees in the forest. We succeeded in
shooting one pair only ; nor were they in very good plumage,
having very few and small wax appendages on the second-
aries. The eggs in the female were very large, and the
testicles of the male very fully developed. It is therefore
probable that they were on the point of building, if they had
not already begun. As the yellow on the primaries was
I-shaped and not V-shaped, I set him down to be a young bird.
The male differed from the female in this pair in the follow-
ing particulars. It was a larger bird, with longer wings and
tail, and slightly larger crest. The black on the throat was

in Broomhall Park. Some months
afterwards a German bird-fancier
brought a number of singing-birds
for sale. Among these were advertised
as great curiosities a pair of " Russian
nightingales." These birds turned out
to be waxwings, which I bought and
kept in a cage for some months. They
were most voracious eaters, and the
cage required cleaning several times
a day. They were very active and
restless — especially after the gas was
lighted in the evening — and «^ven when
perched at rest seemed to be continually
moving their heads about, as razorbills
are in the habit of doing. * If alarmed
they would stretch out their necks
to almost double the usual length.
They were remarkably silent birds.
The only note I heard wa>s a sort of
cir-ir-ir-re, very similar to a well-
known note of the blue tit. Occasion-

ally this succession of notes was repeated
so rapidly as to form a trill like the
song of the lesser redpole. The sexes
of the waxwing may be best distin-
guished by the markings on the wings.
In the female the white mark at the
end of the primary quill feathers is
confined to the outside web, and re-
sembles the letter I, and is only slightly
suffused with yellow. The wax-like
appendages to the secondaries are
comparatively small. In the male a
similar white mark is continued at
the end of the inner web, making the
mark resemble the letter V. This mark
is generally suffused with deep yellow,
and the wax-like appendages are twice
the size of those of the female. It
must be borne in mind, however, that
the male bears the plumage of the
female until after the second autumn
moult.

I46

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

much deeper in tone, and much more sharply defined. The
bar of yellow on the tail was much broader. The wax ap-
pendages larger, and there were more of them. The yellow
on the primaries was more brilliant, and the white in the
secondaries and on the wing-coverts larger. Finally, the
chestnut on the undertail coverts was of a decidedly darker
shade.

We saw one solitary barn-swallow, and shot it.

We came upon many droppings of the capercailzie, but did
not see the bird. Several traps were set in the forest to
catch the hen, for the cock is not eaten. The peasants call
the latter gloo-khah', and the female ty-tyoh'-ra. Willow-
grouse and hazel-grouse, we were told, were abundant in
some seasons.

We saw one pair of golden-plover on the newly-sown corn-
fields behind the village. We noticed two or three pairs of
ringed plover frequenting the ploughed land below Habariki,
and the grassy banks of a little stream running out of the
Petchora. We rose a pair of double snipe * from the
young wood rising on the sandy ground beyond the fields ;
and we bagged one. These were the first examples we
had yet seen of the species.

* The great snipe (Gallinago major,
Gmel.) appears to be confined to the
eastern hemisphere, but is only an
accidental straggler to the British
Islands, principally in the autumn
migration. It breeds in Scandinavia,
Central Kussia, and Northern Siberia
as far east as the Yenesay, passing

through Southern Europe and Persia
on migration, and wintering in South
Africa. In the valley of the Petehora
we only found it as far north as lati-
tude 67j°, from which we conclude
that its northern breeding range does
not extend beyond the limit of forest
growth.

CHAP. XIII.

SNIPE.

We did not succeed in securing a common snipe,* but we
often heard their peculiar tic-tue note, and the sound of
their drumming high in air. My companion identified a
snipe with his glass as belonging to this species; it was
uttering the characteristic tic-tuc ; and later, when it flew
to the ground, it rose again with the zig-zag flight be-
longing to this bird. We were not a little surprised the first
time we saw a common snipe perched upon the topmost
upright twig of a bare larch seventy feet above ground.
We soon grew familiar to the sight ; indeed, after what we
witnessed of the arboreal habits of birds we are not accus-
tomed to see perching in this country, we ceased to feel
surprise at the circumstance. The origin of this habit is
doubtless due to the flooding of the great tracts of country
by the annual overflow of rivers at the time of migration.
We saw but one small flock of Temminck's stint, feeding on
the marshy ground near one of the forest trees. We shot
them all, hoping to discover the " little stint " amongst them,
but we were disappointed.

We found the greenshank and dusky redshank t abundant,

* The common snipe (Scolopax gal-
linago, Linn.) breeds throughout the
arctic and sub-arctic regions of Europe
and Asia, from the British Islands east-
wards to the Pacific. It winters in
various parts of Southern Europe,
Persia, India, and China. On the
American continent a species is found
(Scolopax Wilsoni, Temm.) which many
ornithologists suppose to be identical
with the European bird. In the valley

of the Petchora we found it as far north
as latitude 67°.

t The spotted redshank (Totanus
fuscus, Linn.) appears to be confined to
the eastern hemisphere, being compara-
tively rare in the British Islands,
where it occurs only on migration,
more frequently in autumn than in
spring. It breeds in the northern parts
of Scandinavia, both above and below
the Arctic Circle, extending its range

148

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

but did not succeed in shooting an example of either
species.

Wood sandpipers were common, frequenting the edges of
the marshes and the forest tarns. This bird has a similar
habit to that of Temminck's stint of elevating its wings when
alighting, until they almost meet. There is a likeness also
in the song of the two birds. The note of the wood sand-
piper is more musical than that of the other species, except
the latter one. We shot specimens from the summit of
high bare trees sixty-five feet at least from the ground.

We shot half-a-dozen Terek sandpipers,* the first we had
yet seen. The favourite resort of these pretty birds was the
grassy margin of the stream before-mentioned, where they
fed on the edge of the water and on the shoals of driftwood
which lined it in many places. We also came upon them in
the marshy ground round some of the forest tarns ; they were
extremely tame. Like the wood-sandpiper, they would allow
us to come and talk within a few yards of them ; letting us
take up a position where, by a little patience, a double shot
could be obtained. We thoroughly identified the ruff on the
marsh, although we failed to obtain a specimen of it.

eastwards as far as Kamtchatka. It
passes through Europe and North
Africa, Turkestan, South Siberia, Mon-
golia, North China, and Japan, winter-
ing in South Africa, Scinde, India, and
South China. In the valley of the
Petchora we did not meet with this
species farther north than Habariki.

* The Terek sandpiper (Terekia cine-
rea, Guld.) has never been found in the

British Islands, its breeding-range being
apparently confined from Archangel to
the Pacific. It is an occasional strag-
gler in autumn into Western Europe,
and winters in South Africa, India, the
islands of the Malay Archipelago, Aus-
tralia, China, and Japan. In the valley
of the Petchora we did not meet with
it above the limit of forest growth.

CHAP. XIII.

DUCKS.

149

We saw a bean-goose, which had been shot a day or two
before our arrival. We saw a pair of swans ; and identified
the skin and head of one shot by a sailor a week or two
before our arrival, as belonging to the common wild
species.*

Widgeons were by no means uncommon on the lake, on
the larger forest tarns, and on the open water in the marshes.
We shot a female off the nest, and took from it five eggs and
the down : it was built under a couple of fallen trees crossing
each other. The nest had been used the previous year, as
old egg-shells were under the down. Several others were
brought to us.

The pintail was the commonest duck about Habariki.
We shot a female from the nest, taking nine eggs and the
down. This nest also was under a prostrate tree, and not
far from the widgeon's.

We had one nest of teal with down brought us, together
with a male bird. They were not rare.

The golden-eye was a common duck ; generally seen in
pairs on the open water in the marshes, and the larger
forest tarns. We shot a female, and took a perfect egg
from her. A nest in the hollow stump of a tree some
twenty feet from the ground was shown to us, and we were
told that these birds bred there every year. The nest contained
ten eggs and plenty of down.

* The wild swan (Cygnus musicus,
Bechst.) is a winter visitant to the
British Islands, breeding on the tundras
of Europe and Asia, from Lapland to

the Pacific, wintering in various parts
of Europe, Turkestan, and China. In
the valley of the Petchora we found it
as far north as we went.

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIII.

We saw several goosanders ; * one pair we distinctly
identified on the water of the marsh behind Habariki.

The smew t was rather a common duck ; we saw many
pairs on the pools, the large marsh and the woodland tarns.
We secured a fine male. We were told that they breed in
low stumps of trees.

We identified the black-throated diver J for the first
time on the 2nd of June. We saw it several times, and
heard it flying overhead.

* The goosander (Mergus merganser,
Linn.) is another of the circumpolar
ducks which occasionally breed in Scot-
land, but is usually a winter visitant
to the British Islands. Its breeding
range extends across the northern
portion of the temperate regions of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, up to the
Arctic Circle, and to the mountainous
districts of Mongolia, Turkestan, and
the Himalayas, where it finds a similar
climate at high elevations. In winter
the European birds seldom migrate
across the Mediterranean. In India it
does not appear to wander south of the
Central Provinces. It passes through
Japan on migration, and winters in
South China, whilst on the American
continent, Texas appears to be the
southern limit of its wanderings. Haba-
riki is probably about the northern
limit of this species in the valley of
the Petchora.

f The smew (Mergus albellus, Linn.)
is one of the ducks which appear to be
confined to the eastern hemisphere, and
must be regarded as a somewhat rare
straggler during the winter

through the British Islands. Its
breeding range may be described as
slightly south of the northern limit
of forest growth. It winters in Central
and Southern Europe, occasionally
crossing the Mediterranean, Turkestan,
North India, China and Japan. In the
valley of the Petchora we did not meet
with this bird farther north than
Habariki.

| The black-throated diver (Colym-
bas arcticus, Linn.) is not an uncommon
bird in the breeding season on the
Scotch lakes and tarns. It frequents
similar localities throughout the whole
of North Europe and Asia. Its home
is on the water, and it does not appear
to indulge in any extended migrations.
In winter it frequents the sea-coasts of
England, the shores of the North Sea,
very rarely straying as far as the
Mediterranean. In the Black Sea it
is very common in winter, also in
North Japan. On the American con-
tinent it appears to be equally abun-
dant, breeding in the Hudson's Bay
territory, and wintering on the coast
of California.

CHAP. XIII.

BIRDS.

We occasionally saw one or two common gulls, and one
pair of Siberian herring-gulls. In addition to the above-
mentioned birds, we frequently saw others that we were yet
unable fully to identify. Thus, we often came upon large
sand-pipers on the marsh, whose cry was like that of the
redshank ; they were probably the dusky redshank. The
breast was black and the rump barred. We also saw a large
flock of ducks, of a heavy species, flying overhead, which we
put down to be the eider-duck.

In the woods and forests of Habariki, we did not once
meet with the raven, the bullfinch, or yellow-hammer ; nor
with any species of pipit or lark.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

SAILING DOWN THE DELTA.

CHAPTER XIY.

Return to Ust-Zylma — Wedding of the engineer's son — Scarlet bullfinch — Last
days at Ust-Zylma — Our boat — We sail to Habariki — Birds' eggs — Smew's eggs
— Snipes in trees — Down the Petchora — Sedge warbler — Black-cock — Arctic
tern — Willow swamps — We cross the Arctic Circle — A new bird — Arrival at
Yiski — The Delta — Double snipe — Pustazursk — The tundra — Arrival at
Alexievka.

WE returned to Ust-Zylma on Sunday, the 6th of June, and
attended the wedding of the son of the engineer of Sideroff's
steamer. It took place in the church of the Old Believers ;
but the ritual did not differ much from that of the orthodox
ceremonial. The bridal party afterwards sat in state in the
house of Sideroff's manager. CofTee was first served, then
sherry, afterwards champagne. All the quality (as an Irish-

CHAP. XIV.

A WEDDING.

man would say) were present, except the public prosecutor.
It was an exceedingly formal and slow affair ; the only
feature of interest being the assemblage of villagers outside,
who sang a melancholy tune, while two or three couples
slowly walked round each other in a depressed fashion ; the
gentleman taking hold of one of the lady's arms by the
elbow, the other arm interlaced in hers. The girls wore
their hair plaited in a pigtail behind, at the end of which a
cross-bar was attached, from which dangled half-a-dozen
broad ribbons like a banner screen. They kept their eyes
fixed on the ground as they danced, and lifted a handker-
chief of many colours to their mouths. All the time vodka
was served from a tin-can; and through the afternoon and
evening, the part of the room near the door was filled with
an ever-changing crowd of peasant maidens, who came to
have a good stare at the bride and bridegroom ; and having
gazed their fill, retired to make way for others, who entered
and did likewise.

The next morning a stroll up the chiff-chaff valley resulted
in nothing ; but as we were returning home, I heard the
song of a bird that was quite new to me. Four notes loud
and clear. I shot the little songster, and it proved to be a male
scarlet bullfinch.* It was in company with another bird, but
this one escaped us. We heard the cuckoo in our morning

* The scarlet bullfinch (Carpodacus
erythrinus, Pall.) is confined to the
eastern hemisphere, breeding somewhat
south of the Arctic Circle, and acci-
dentally visiting the British Islands
only in winter. Its breeding range

extends from Finland to Kamtchatka.
In winter it is a more or less irregular
straggler in Europe, but is found abun-
dantly in Persia, India, and China. In
the valley of the Petchora we did not ob-
serve it farther north than latitude 65 J°.

154

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

ramble. Four eggs of the wood sandpiper were brought
to us, and the next day four eggs of the oyster-catcher, one
of which was slightly set. All that day we worked hard at
our eggs ; we had blown 143 in all, including the egg of a
peregrine falcon, which a Samoyede brought us, on the
27th of May. He said he found it, in a nest built on the
ground, containing three others, which he had the clumsiness
to break. At night we turned out for a breath of fresh air,
along the banks of the great river. During our walk we shot
a pair of Terek sandpipers, the first we had yet seen in Ust-
Zylraa. We also brought down two Temminck's stints. We
afterwards secured our solitary example of the little ringed-
plover.* I shot at it as it rose from and again alighted upon
a swampy, hummocky strip of tundra land. The next day
a peasant brought us a fine cock willow-grouse, t our first,

* The little ringed plover (JEgialitis
curoniGa, Gmel.) appears to be confined
to the eastern hemisphere, being re-
presented on the American continent
by a very nearly allied species, JEgia-
litis semipalmatus (Bonap.). In the
British Islands it is a comparatively
rare straggler. It frequents the rivers
and lakes of the three continents
south of about latitude 60°, but not
migrating so far south as South Africa
or Australia. Towards the northern
limit of its range, it is only a summer
visitant, and at the extreme southern
limit of its range it migrates north to
breed. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not shoot a second specimen,
and must consider the example we

obtained as one which had accidentally
strayed somewhat beyond its usual
northern limit.

f The willow-grouse (Lagopus albus,
Gmel.) is a circumpolar bird inhabiting
the tundras above the pine regions,
where cover of birch and willow is
to be found in the sheltered valleys.
In the British Islands it is represented
by our common red grouse, wrhich
differs from the willow-grouse in little
beyond the fact that the latter bird
has a white wing, and the whole
plumage becomes white for the winter.
In winter they form themselves into
large flocks and migrate southwards
into the pine regions.

CHAP. xiv. OUR BOAT. 155

clothed in about half its summer costume. We had also a
nest given to us of the wheatear, with one egg in it, and the
female bird caught upon it.

We had for some time been on the look-out for a boat
in which to make the journey down the river, and by the
exertion of Piottuch and the kind help of M. Znaminski,
who was much interested in our expedition, we succeeded in
obtaining one which suited us very well. A wooden cabin,
not unlike a large dog-kennel, occupied the centre, and
was just large enough for us to recline in at full length ;
and at the back of it was a covered space, where our baggage
could be packed secure from the heavy rains which occasion-
ally occur in summer. It had one mast, on which we could
hoist a square sail whenever the wind was favourable. The
current would of course usually be in our favour, but we
were also provided with four oars, which though incapable of
propelling her at much speed, would be useful in crossing
the stream, and in giving her way enough to make the
rudder of some use in a calm. We engaged four boatmen,
two Kussians, a Samoyede, and a half breed, all of whom
possessed some knowledge of the river; and the latter
having the additional advantage of being what passed in this
district as an enthusiastic sportsman. We left Ust-Zylma on
Thursday, the 10th of June, and sailed down to Habariki
with a fair wind and a strong current. The banks of the
river were covered with birch and spruce woods, alternating
with willow swamps. On our way, we landed at several
places, but met with nothing of special interest. Every-
where we found the blue-throat, the redwing, the brambling,

iS6

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

the fieldfare, the little bunting, and the willow-warbler
common. We saw a solitary sand-martin.* The peasants
at Habariki had collected eggs for us ; some of the redwing,
the redstart, the hooded crow, and of various ducks. The
best nest contained eight eggs. It had been found by two
boys, who had divided the eggs and the down between them.
Four of these eggs, cream-coloured, of a smaller size than
the pintail's, were first brought to us, and with them some
white down. The lad who brought them said he had found
the nest in the old stump of a tree ; and the fragments of
rotten wood scattered in the down seemed to corroborate his
statement. We then sent for the other sharer of the spoil ;
he had already sold the eggs, along with another duck's nest
containing six eggs. On our inquiry as to what he had
done with the down, he immediately went off for it, and soon
brought it to us. It was white down containing small frag-
ments of wood, the exact counterpart of the other portion
in our possession. We found, however, that the down
of the second nest was mingled with it. We had no dif-
ficulty in separating it, for it was brown, and evidently that
of the pintail. Ultimately we purchased the batch of ten
eggs from SiderofFs manager, who had bought them from

* The sand-martin (Cotyle riparia,
Linn.) is an inhabitant of both hemi-
spheres, being found northwards up to
and occasionally north of the Arctic
Circle, the southern limit of its breeding
range being North Africa, Central Asia
and North China, and the southern
states in North America. It probably

winters somewhere in Southern Africa,
and is known to do so in India and
Brazil. In the valley of the Petchora
we did not find it farther north than
latitude 67j°. In the British Islands it
is an abundant summer visitant, breed-
ing in most sand-banks, both inland and
on the sea-coasts.

CHAP. xiv. SMEW'S EGGS. 157

the lad. Four exactly matched the four we had secured
from his companion ; the other six were the same in size but
more greenish in colour, and similar to eggs of the pintail
duck which we afterwards obtained. Upon showing the
boys some skins of ducks, they at once identified the
smew as the duck which belonged to the whiter eggs with
the pale grey down. These eggs are extremely rare in
collections, and we were not a little elated with our prize.

At three the following morning we shouldered our guns
and went on shore. We had sat up late blowing eggs, but
the excitement of finding ourselves in a locality where rare
eggs and birds might be expected, made an attempt to sleep
fruitless, and we decided to gratify our curiosity without
further delay. We shot a Siberian chiffchaff singing and
" chiviting " lustily amongst the pines ; and heard several
cuckoos. The snipes were drumming on the marshes, and
three times we marked them perched high up on trees ; once
upon a dead trunk, and twice on the slender dead branches
near the summit of larches. These trees were at least seventy
feet high. To put an end to all dispute concerning their
species, we settled the question by dropping a common
snipe with a No. 4 cartridge. It was shot from the top-
most twigs of a lofty larch, just budding into leaf. My
afternoon walk, which was a long round on the marsh,
resulted in very little. I rose a reeve from her nest, and
shot her as she was silently shuffling off. The nest was
a rather deep hole upon a grass tussock, lined with dry
grass, and in it were four eggs and two feathers. A quantity
of green-wagtails were running along the swampy ground,

IS8

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

and perching freely upon the birches growing on the islands
formed in the marsh. Their usual cry was a loud ne or ns,
but what seemed the call-note to the female resembled the
sound i-i-i-Jc ; the song is a low chatter like that of the
swallow. Ducks were constantly coming and going to and
from the open places on the swamp. The widgeon, judging
from the frequency of its cry, seemed the commonest
species ; its loud m-e-e-e'-yu was continually to be heard.

In the evening we left the little village of Habariki, and
proceeded down the river. All the next day we crept
slowly down the mighty Petchora, a strong current in our
favour, but the wind contrary, and with only a couple of
oars propelling us along. The scenery was often interesting.
The west bank, lofty and steep, was now and then clothed
to the water's edge with forests of birches and pines ; the
east bank at that part was a dead flat covered with willows.
Numberless islands studded the water, kourias running up
amongst them, sometimes of great picturesqueness. The
tirrr'-eek' of the Terek sandpiper resounded continually ;
and sometimes we heard the cry of the common sandpiper.*
We shot a brace of the latter, the first we had secured ; we
found the species very wild. Two or three times during the
day we pulled up on an island or on the mainland. On a

* The common sandpiper (Totanus
hypoleucus, Linn.) is confined to the
eastern hemisphere, being a regular
summer migrant to the British Islands,
Northern and Central Europe, and
Siberia. In the basin of the Mediter-
ranean and China it appears to be a

resident, wintering in South Africa,
Beloochistan, India, the islands of the
Malay Archipelago, and Australia. In
the valley of the Petchora we did not
see it [farther north than the Arctic
Circle.

CHAP. XIV.

ARCTIC WILLOW-WARBLER.

159

sandy island thinly covered with grass, we came upon a
party fishing with a seine-net ; we watched and saw the net
twice drawn without result. On this island we shot a hen
harrier, a cuckoo, and a short-eared owl. A few gulls were
flying about, the common gull and the Siberian herring-
gull. As we pulled on, I saw a party of six waxwings flying
north. Willow-warblers abounded ; I watched one for some
time, that allowed me to approach within six feet of it.
I noticed that some appeared to have a whiter throat and
a more rapid song than usual. One I heard vociferously
uttering a note unlike any that I have heard from the
willow-warbler, "tuz-zuk." These observations convinced
me that two species of willow-warblers exist in these parts,
and upon a careful examination of our skins afterwards I
found that I had shot an Arctic willow- warbler.* Swrans,
geese, ducks, especially the latter, were to be seen in the
ponds behind the fringing belts of willows; amongst these
we clearly identified the scaup t and the black scoter. We

* The Arctic willow-warbler (Phyllo-
scopus borealis, Blasius) breeds in the
north of the palasarctic region from
Finmark, across Asia to Alaska towards
the northerly limit of forest growth,
and in a similar climate in the sub-
alpine districts of South-Eastern Siberia
and Mongolia. It passes in great
numbers on migration in spring and
autumn along the coast of China and
Formosa, and winters in the islands of
the Malay Archipelago, Malacca, Tenas-
serim, and the South Andaman Islands.
Although this is not the only species
breeding in North-East Europe which

winters in the Malay Archipelago, it
seems highly probable, from the fact
of accidental stragglers having been
shot on Heligoland, that it may occa-
sionally stray as far as the British
Islands. The Arctic willow-warbler
differs from the three British species
in having a pale bar across the wings
formed by the greater wing-coverts
being nearly white at their tips. It
has the minute bastard primary of the
wood-wren, with a bill almost as wide
and stout as that of a reed- warbler.

f The scaup-duck (Fuliijula mania,
Linn.) is also a circumpolar bird which

i6o

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

found six ducks' nests, most of which were those of the
widgeon. In one of those dense willow swamps, lining the
east bank of the river I found for the first time the sedge-
warbler.* On several occasions, especially at night, we heard
its harsh notes ; but the bird kept very close, and was very
difficult to see. I shot two ; one was flying out of a birch-
tree, in which it had descended, singing after the manner
of the blue-throat. We also secured a red-throated diver,t
the first added to our list. We saw a rough-legged buzzard, J
the only one of the species we clearly identified. It was
sitting in a low willow-tree ; we shot it, as we silently drifted
past, about midnight. We lay to, soon after, anchoring in a

visits the British Islands only in winter.
Its breeding range extends up to the
limits of forest growth, and southwards
in Europe throughout Scandinavia. It
winters throughout temperate Europe
and North Africa. It has not been
recorded from Turkestan or Persia, but
is mentioned as a very rare winter
visitant to India, and is found in great
numbers during the cold season in
Japan. In the valley of the Petchora
we found it as far north as latitude
68°.

* The sedge-warbler (Acrocephalus
schoenobcenus, Linn.) is a common sum-
mer visitant to the British Islands,
breeding throughout Europe and Sibe-
ria as far east as the valley of the
Yenesay, and wintering in South Africa.
In the valley of the Petchora we found
it as far north as latitude 68°.

f The red-throated driver (Colymbus
septentrionalis, Linn.) is a still more

widely-distributed bird than the black-
throated species, being found, like it,
in the breeding season in the northern
portions of both hemispheres, wintering
on the shores of the British Islands,
the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas,
sparingly in the Mediterranean, on the
coast of China, Japan, Formosa, and on
the American continent in California
and the coast of New Brunswick. In
the valley of the Petchora it was cer-
tainly the least abundant of the two
species.

J The rough-legged buzzard (Archi-
buteo lagopus, Gmel.) is an irregular
winter visitant to the British Islands.
It breeds in Arctic Europe and Asia as
far east as the watershed of the Yene-
say and Lena. It winters in various
parts of South Europe and Turkestan.
This was the only occasion on which
we were able to identify this bird in
the valley of the Petchora.

CHAP. xiv.

GOSHAWK.

161

little creek. A steady rain began to fall, which continued
all the following day; we just managed to creep down to
the river Yorsa, where again we pulled up en route. We
saw very few birds, but in the evening we got on shore ; and
a turn in the rain was not without result. We seemed
entangled in a network of willow swamps, lakes, and Jcourias
running out of the winding Yorsa. Here and there rose
a few taller willows and birches. After a while we came
upon a little house, the abode of the hay-cutters in autumn,
which our boatmen were now glad to make use of for the
night ; all around it were long straggling meadows, upon
which the grass was just beginning to come up. My com-
panion shot a second yellow-headed wagtail, a male; he
saw the female, but lost her. He also saw a small owl, pro-
bably Tengmalm's owl. I secured a fine male goshawk,*
the only one we identified on our journey. It was in a
thick alder-bush when I disturbed it, in the act of de-
vouring a female widgeon. In the same place I shot a
short-eared owl. Reed-buntings abounded. I took a nest
containing four eggs; it was built inside an old fieldfare's
nest, and was nine feet from the ground, in a willow- tree.
This is another example of the manner in which birds
accommodate themselves to the circumstances of a flooded
country. We found the little bunting very common, and

* The goshawk (Astur palumbarius,
Linn.) is only found in the British
Islands as a rare straggler. It breeds
in most of the hilly and wooded dis-
tricts of Europe, and winters on both
shores of the basin of the Mediterranean.

Eastwards it breeds as far south as the
Himalayas and North China, occasion-
ally straggling into Central India and
South China during winter. In the
valley of the Petchora we did net meet
with it north of the Arctic Circle.

162

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

just beginning to build. Once or twice a white -tailed eagle
hovered overhead. In long grass covering the raised bank
of the island, we discovered a black-cock's * nest containing
five eggs ; also a widgeon's nest with seven eggs, and a
teal's with six.

The next afternoon we left the Yorsa river ; the day was
fine, but the wind contrary. We stopped for an hour at
Churvinski Ostroff, and had a short stroll on shore armed
with walking-stick guns. My companion shot a tree-sparrow,
and I a small spotted woodpecker. We also started a three-
toed woodpecker out of its hole in a tree ; I shot it, when
immediately the female came up, and I secured her also. We
whistled for our boatmen, who, by our orders, cut down the
tree. The bird's hole was about fifteen feet from the ground,
descending nine inches perpendicularly ; there was no lining
in it, except plenty of saw- or rather beak-dust. It con-
tained two newly-hatched birds and one egg. On our way
back we shot a pair of yellow-headed wagtails ; the female
had dry grass in her beak, which sjie was evidently carrying
to build her nest. The male was not fully mature, having
the nape brown, and dark feathers amongst the yellow of the
crown. The yellow of the hen bird was much less brilliant
than that of her mate ; and the head and cheeks were
greenish brown, with the exception of a pale yellow streak
over each eye, meeting across the forehead. A few miles

* The black grouse (Tetrao tetrix,
Linn.), the well-known " black game "
of the British sportsman, appears to be
found throughout the pine and birch

regions of Europe and Asia, extending
eastwards as far as Korth China, where,
however, it is said to be a rare bird.

CHAP. XIV.

ARCTIC TERN.

163

lower we brought down two little buntings and an oyster-
catcher; we also took a brambling's nest and a duck's, both
containing eggs. That evening we saw our first Arctic
tern.* We spied them from a distance, and brought them
within range by imitating their notes. We suspected this
species by the ash-grey colour of the lower parts. Later in
the night we had the opportunity of procuring both birds
and eggs, and verifying our previous recognition. We had
pulled up at one of the islands to boil the kettle for tcliai
and cook some fish ; after this meal we began to explore. We
shot three terns, and found three nests, securing five eggs in
all. As I was in the act of taking up one of these nests,
a hare ran up, stood in mute amazement, gazing at me for
a second or two, and then turned and bolted. On this
island we shot an oyster-catcher ; it was evident the nest was
there, but we could not find it.

Bain and contrary winds accompanied us all the next day ;
and at night we stopped at Abramoff. We got from the
peasants there eggs of the common gull, and some of the
white wagtail, and also eggs of the widgeon, the golden-eye,
the fieldfare, and red pole. We also saw a couple of young
ravens. We shot a ringed plover, a Temminck's stint, and a
pair of yellow-headed wagtails. We were now leaving the
more hilly country and the forests of pine, and were entering

* The Arctic tern (Sterna macrura,
Naum.) is a circumpolar bird, though
its breeding range extends into the
temperate regions. It is common in
various parts of the British Islands.

This species frequents the rivers and
lakes, as well as the sea-shore. It
appears to winter south of the Mediter-
ranean, ranging as far as the Cape, and
the northern shores of South America.

164 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xiv.

a waste of willows. Far as the eye could reach, on all sides
of us, stretched this never-ending, almost impenetrable
willow-swamp, with winding Jcourias and lakes. The only
break in the monotony was here and there a straggling bit
of pasture land, on which stood a house or two, where a cow
fed and the peasants fished, and where, in the autumn, they
would make hay. Terns, gulls, and oyster-catchers were now
not unfrequently seen, in addition to the almost numberless
ducks that were breeding everywhere. On the shores could
occasionally be seen a Terek sandpiper, a Temminck's stint, or
a dotterel. In the thickets the blue-throat was giving way
to the sedge-warbler, but the willow-wren remained the com-
monest bird. The notes of the redpole, the brambling, and
the redwing still sounded. The fieldfare and the reed-bunting,
as well as the yellow-headed, green, and white wagtails
were still to be often met with, the little bunting being espe-
cially plentiful. That day I took my first nest of the Terek
sandpiper. I was walking in a wood of tall willows, when
the bird rose at my feet, and silently fluttered away. There
were four eggs laid in a slight hollow, lined with broad grass.
We also found the nest of an oyster-catcher, containing
four eggs.

We were now a little to the north of the Arctic
Circle; and at three in the morning moored our boat on
the shores of an island, among whose willows grew an occa-
sional birch or alder. I spent five hours upon it. Sedge-
warblers were singing lustily, and sometimes so melodiously
that we almost took them to be blue-throats. Soon, how-
ever, my attention was arrested by a song with which I was

CHAP. XIV.

SIBERIAN PIPIT.

165

not familiar. It came from a bird singing high in the air,
like a lark. I spent an hour watching it. Once it remained
up in the sky nearly half-an-hour. The first part of the
song was like the trill of a Temminck's stint; or like the
concluding notes of the wood- warbler's song. This was suc-
ceded by a low guttural warble, resembling that which the
blue-throat sometimes makes. The bird sang while hover-
ing; it afterwards alighted on a tree, and then descended
to the ground, still continuing to sing. I shot one, and
my companion, an hour after, shot another. Both birds
proved to be males, and quite distinct from any species
with which either of us was previously acquainted. The
long hind claw was like that of the meadow-pipit, and
the general character of the bird resembled a large and
brilliantly-coloured tree-pipit. It was very aquatic in its
habits, frequenting the most marshy ground amongst the
willows.

On our return home five skins of this bird were submitted
to our friend Mr. Dresser, who pronounced it to be a new
species, and described and figured it in a work which he was
then publishing on the Birds of Europe. In honour of my
having been the first to disover it, he named it after me,
AntJius seebolimi* but, alas for the vanity of human wishes !

* The Siberian pipit (Anthus gustavi,
Swinhoe) was perhaps the most in-
teresting discovery which we made
during our journey. It was first de-
scribed by Swinhoe in 1863, from
specimens obtained at Amoy, in South
China, on migration. It is seldom that

the history of an obscure bird is so
suddenly and completely worked out
as has been the case with this species.
In 1869 G. R. Gray, of the British
Museum, redescribed the species as
Anthus batchianensis, from skins col-
lected by Wallace on the island of

i66

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

I afterwards discovered that the bird was not new, but had
been described some years before from examples obtained on
the coast of China. I had subsequently the pleasure of
working out its geographical distribution, as the reader who
cares to peruse the accompanying foot-note may learn. The
honour of having added a new bird to the European list still
remains to us, and is one of the discoveries made upon our
journey on which we pride ourselves.

In the evening we reached Viski, a small town with a
church built upon a flat piece of pasture land. It was the
first village containing more than half-a-dozen houses, and
the first church, that we had seen since leaving Ust-Zylma.
It is reputed to be the residence of several rich peasants, one
of whom is the owner of 10,000 reindeer, valued at a
sovereign each. Without exception it is the dirtiest place
I have ever been in. The peasants keep cows, but as
they have no arable ground the manure is valueless, and is

Batchian. In 1871 Swinhoe announced
the identity of Gray's birds with the
species which he had previously de-
scribed from South China. Three years
later he rediscovered the species in
North China on migration, and also
obtained a skin from Lake Baikal. The
year after our visit to the Petchora,
Drs. Finsch and Brehm found it in the
valley of the Obb, a little to the north
of the Arctic Circle, and I afterwards
found skins in the British Museum from
Borneo and Negros, and also obtained
information that it had been procured
in winter at Manilla and Celebes. In
1877 I found it breeding in considerable

numbers in the valley of the Yenesay
in latitude 70J°, and on my journey
home I identified skins in the Museum
at St. Petersburg, collected by Baron
Maydell in the Tschuski Land, north of
Kamtschatka, and on Baring Island to
the east of that peninsula, collected by
Wossnessensky. We may therefore
conclude that the Siberian pipit breeds
on the tundras beyond the limit of
forest growth, from the valley of the
Petchora eastwards to Behring's Straits,
that it passes through South-Eastern
Siberia and East China on migration,
and winters in the islands of the Malay
Archipelago.

CHAP. XIV.

THE DELTA.

167

thrown outside the house to be trodden under foot. There
was an excellent shop in the place, where we laid in a store
of tobacco, white flour, &o. In the village we saw a
sand-martin and a magpie, but no sparrows.

On leaving Viski we entered upon the true delta, a laby-
rinth of water and islands, one almost as dead a flat as the
other. The islands were almost all alike ; but a little while
ago they had lain three or four feet deep under the overflow
of the great river; they were monotonous willow-swamps,
with here and there narrow strips of sandy land appearing
thickly covered with grass, and sparingly sprinkled with wil-
lows and alders ; everywhere were the winding kourias and
chains of lakelets. On the dry places ducks of various sorts
were breeding. We identified a shoveller. There were
widgeons, scoters, and teal. On one island we found two
pintails' nests with eggs, and I shot our first tufted duck,*
a species which we found very rare in the Petchora. As soon
as I fired there rose between me and it a flock of red-necked
phalaropes,t which alighted between me and the floating

* The tufted duck (FwUgula cristata,
Leach) appears to be confined to the
eastern hemisphere, occasionally breed-
ing both in England and Scotland,
though it must be considered princi-
pally as a winter visitant to the British
Islands. This duck has a wide range,
both during the breeding season and in
winter, being found in summer as far
north as the limit of forest growth,
and also throughout the basin of the
Baltic. In winter it is very common
in the basin of the Mediterranean,

ranging eastwards through Scinde,
Central and Southern India, China
and Japan. In the valley of the Pet-
chora it appeared to be rather scarce,
and we did not see it further north
than latitude 67J°.

t The red-necked phalarope (Phala-
ropus hyperboreus, Linn.) is a circum-
polar biid, and breeds in the north of
Scotland, being only a spring and
autumn visitor on migration to the
rest of the British Islands. It fre-
quents in summer the tundras above

1 68

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

body. I shot five ; they were the first we had yet secured ;
and later in the day we brought down four more. My com-
panion meanwhile was exploring another island, where he fell
in with a flock of ruffs at their " lecking " place. He shot
two. Geese were becoming more and more plentiful ; in one
instance we marked a flock of fifty at least. Swans often
passed us by twos and threes. The sandpipers, the Terek,
and Temminck's were as common as ever. We watched
one of the latter to its nest, shot it, and secured the four
eggs. Early next morning I brought down a skylark ; the
second only that we had seen; I also shot a blue-throat,
which had by this time grown very rare. The commonest
warbler, abounding in some places, was the sed ge- warbler ;
next to it was the willow-warbler. Now and then also we heard
the redwing, and generally where we stopped there would
greet us the song of the new pipit pouring down from the
sky. The bird would remain up in the air for a long time,
then fly down and alight in the middle of a dense willow
swamp, rendering it impossible for us to secure another
specimen. A red-throated pipit that my companion shot
out of a tree, furnished us with the best possible evidence
that this species is much more arboreal in its habits than the
meadow pipit. The yellow-headed wagtail had now entirely

the limit of forest growth, being rarely
found south of the Arctic Circle at that
season except at high elevations. In
winter it is found in various parts of
Southern Europe, and occasionally in
North Africa. Eastwards it winters
in Persia, Southern Turkestan, occa-

sionally wandering into India, and
being more abundant in South China
and the islands of the Malay Archi-
pelago. In the western hemisphere its
winter range extends as far south as
Central America.

CHAP. xiv. PUSTAZURSK. 169

replaced the green wagtail, and had become quite a common
bird. Occasionally we -still saw the white wagtail. At one
island we shot a pair of small spotted woodpeckers, which must
have found the alder and willow trunks very small for their
nests. I found also two fieldfares' nests, one with four, the
other with six eggs. Late in the evening we came upon a
large flock of great snipe, and in the course of half an hour
we had shot ten. They were flying about in companies of
about six, continually alighting on the ground, where the
sound of their feeding was often heard. One or two
common snipe were also hovering overhead and frequently
drumming. On one island we saw signs that the breaking
up of the Petchora did not take place so silently in the
delta as it had done at Ust-Zylma. On the flat shore we
discovered a small range of miniature mountains, some
eighteen to twenty feet high. We took them at first, from
a distance, to be low sandhills, but on nearer approach found
them to be a pile of dirty blocks of ice.

We arrived at Pustazursk at midnight on June 18tb, and
spent the night shooting. The country was a sort of rolling
prairie, rising here and there, into dry moorland, on which
grew birches, junipers, and a few pines. The lower land
remained a willow swamp. Among the sandhills we found
a couple of terns' nests, and a nest of the Terek sandpiper.
Plenty of Temminck's stints were about, but we failed to find
any nests. We shot a couple of sand-martins preparing to
build. In a walk that I took on the dry moorland, I
stalked a couple of willow-grouse, sitting upon a birch-tree,
very conspicuous objects for a mile around. I also rose a

i;o SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xiv.

•

shore-lark from its nest, in which I found four young birds ;
and secured a golden plover, one of whose axillary feathers
was blotched with brown. In this part of the moor, the
yellow-headed wagtails abounded. Down in the marshy
ground I shot a ruff, and saw several others, besides a
number of red-necked phalaropes ; but of all the birds the
most interesting were the pipits. Our new pipit was here
by no means uncommon ; two or three would sometimes bo
singing together. We secured two more specimens, one of
which must have been trilling its roundelay up in the air
for nearly an hour before we were able to shoot it. These
pipits poured their song indifferently from the sky, or
perching on a bough, or down upon the ground. The red-
throated pipit also we found settling freely in trees. In the
swampy ground we saw many sedge-warblers, field fares, and red-
wings, and one or two blue-throats. The next night we again
spent shooting, in a willow-covered island, just opposite Kuya.
We had grown very weary of those islands, and somewhat
disappointed in the result of our ornithological experience of
the delta. We had indeed secured some interesting species
of birds, but each island had proved almost a repetition of
the others; the same landscape, the same conditions, the
same bird-life. We were Hearing Alexievka, however, and
on the eastern side of the river we could almost distinguish
the low outline of the skirts of the great Zemelskaya Tundra,
stretching away, we knew, on the east to the Ural Moun-
tains, on the north-east to the gates of the Kara Sea; and
the Tundra was the unexplored land, the land of promise.
On this island we took the nest, containing seven eggs, of

CHAP. XIV.

LONG-TAILED DUCK.

171

a pintail, shooting the bird as she was flying off. We found
also those of the red-necked phalarope, the great snipe, and
the reed-bunting. Our most exciting nest-discovery was
that of a swan. It was a large nest, containing three eggs,
made of coarse grass, lined with a little down and a fe\v
feathers. It was placed upon a bank between two marshes,
half concealed by willow-scrub. The most interesting birds
we shot were a black scoter, a herring-gull, and a long-tailed
duck,* the first we had yet seen on our travels. Its cry was
not unlike the word " colguief." Of all species of ducks, it
is the tamest and yet one of the most difficult to shoot, for
it is an expert at diving, and eludes the sportsman's aim by
its rapid and repeated plunges under the surface of the
water.

Just before reaching Alexievka, we anchored for an hour
at another island, about which seven swans were sailing.
The graceful birds, however, did not give us the chance
of a shot. Upon this island we had an excellent view
of our first great black-backed gulls,t and also of Buffon's

* The long-tailed duck (Harelda
glacialis, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird,
breeding north of the Arctic circle,
principally on the tundras above the
limit of forest growth. In the British
Islands it is only a winter visitant,
being found also in various parts of
Central Europe, rarely, if ever, stray-
ing as far as the basin of the Mediter-
ranean. The Siberian birds appear
to winter in Japan and in America ; it
wanders down to the great central
lakes and to similar latitudes on both

coasts. In the valley of the Petchora
we found it as far north as latitude
68J°, but it was one of the few birds
we met with which escaped our notice
at Ust-Zylma during the period of mi-
gration. These birds probably do not
fly across country, but follow the coast
line.

f The great black -backed gull
(Larus marinus, Linn.) is also a circum-
polar bird, breeding in a more southern
latitude than its congeners, the glau-
cous gull and the Siberian herring-

172

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIV.

skua.* The former were sitting amidst several Siberian
herring-gulls, but their superior size allowed us to identify
them at a glance. The Arctic tern was breeding on this
island; ruffs, phalaropes, and Temminck's stint abounded
upon it. On one part, covered with dwarf willows, inter-
spersed with taller trees, to my astonishment I heard the
warble of the Siberian chiff-chaff, two specimens of which

gull, rarely, if ever, ranging north of
the Arctic circle. It nests in various
parts of the British Islands, Northern
Europe, Japan, the great lakes of North
America, Labrador, and Greenland.
In winter it is found as far south as
the Mediterranean, and has been re-
corded from Florida. Although we
identified several individuals in com-
pany with small parties of the Siberian
herring-gull — their superior size being
evident at a glance — we did not succeed
in obtaining any examples, nor did we
meet with their eggs or young.

* The Buffon's skua (Stercorarius
parasiticus, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird,
being found upon the moorland districts
beyond the limit of forest growth of
Europe, Asia, and America. It winters
on the sea-coasts of Europe, and in
about the same latitudes in Asia and
America. In the British Islands it must
be considered as a somewhat rare winter
visitant, though it has been said to
breed in Scotland. On several occasions
we observed the peculiar kestrel- or
tern-like hover of the Buffon's skua, and
also saw these birds pick up from the
ground, or seize upon the wing, dunlins
and stints, in the one case acting like a
hen-harrier, in the other seizing their

prey like a falcon. We had cause, also,
to suspect their depredations amongst
the eggs ; and grey plovers and other
birds often joined in driving them away
from their domains. Sometimes in the
evenings or mornings we saw long
straggling flocks of these skuas passing
over the island of Alexievka, and cross-
ing and recrossing the branch of the
Petchora which separates that island
from the mainland. We found them
common all over the tundra as far
north-east as we penetrated. In the
specimens of the two species which we
obtained we found a marked difference
in the coloration of the legs and toes,
those of the Richardson's skua being
uniform dark brown, while those of
Buffon's skua were blotched with
bluish-grey. In one specimen of the
latter there is a single feather of the
under-tail coverts white \vith dark
brown bars ; in all the other specimens
procured the under-tail coverts are of
a uniform smoky brown. This single
feather is doubtless a last trace of im-
maturity. We saw many specimens
of the Pomatorhine skua outside the
Golaievskai banks on our journey home
by sea, but saw nothing of this species
during our stay in Russia.

CHAP. XIV.

ALEXIEVKA.

173

I secured. The red-throated pipits were there perching,
as usual, in the boughs ; and I noticed also one or two of
our new pipits, and a number of reed-buntings.

This bird-haunted island was our last stoppage before
reaching Alexievka. We arrived at our destination on the
evening of the 19th June, after ten days' voyage down the
great river and through the intricacies of the monotonous
delta.

PLOUGHING AT UST-ZYLMA.

ALEXIJEVKA FROM THE TUNDRA.

CHAPTER XY.

Alexievka — The timber rafts — The island — Nest arid eggs — Buffon's Skua — Sailing
for the Tundra — Description of the Tundra — Its vegetation — Nests of Lapland
bunting and red-throated pipit — First sight of the grey plover — Its nest —
Watching by the nest — Shot at last — Omelette of grey plover's eggs — Birds
seen on the Tundra — Eggs collected during the day — Blowing eggs — Nest of
the Petchora pipit.

ALEXIEVKA is the shipping-port of the Petchora Timber-
trading Company. It is a group of houses built upon an
island in the delta of the great river, where the ships are
laden with larch for Cronstadt. The larch is felled in the
forests five or six hundred miles up the river, and roughly
squared into logs varying from two to three feet in diameter.
It is floated down in enormous rafts, the logs being bound

CHAP, xv, TIMBER RAFTS. 175

together with willows and hazel boughs. These rafts are
manned by a large crew, some of whom help to steer it down
the current with oars and poles, and others are hired for the
season to assist in loading the ships at Alexievka. Many of
the men bring their wives with them to cook for the party ;
sleeping-huts are erected on the raft, and it becomes to all
intents and purposes a little floating village, which is fre-
quently three months in making the voyage down the river.
Marriages have been known to take place on these rafts;
occasionally a funeral has to be performed ; and sometimes
all hands are engaged in helping to keep the raft from
running ashore or grounding on a sandbank. Sometimes in
stormy weather it is necessary to moor the raft under the lee
of an islander a promontory, to avoid the danger of having it
broken up by the violence of the waves. With the greatest
care in the world, this will sometimes happen. The Kussian
has a good deal of the fatal facility to blunder which charac-
terises the Englishman, and shiploads of stranded logs of
larch are strewed on the islands of the delta, and on the
shores of the lagoon of this great river.

When we landed on the island of Alexievka it was a
rapidly drying-up willow swamp of perhaps half-a-dozen
square miles, some six feet above the level of the Petchora,
which swept past it with a rapid current. In some places the
willow swamp was impenetrable, in others bare grassy oases
varied the flat landscape, and there were one or two larger
lakes on the island. During the floods which accompanied
the breaking-up of the ice, the whole of the island was under
water, and the men were busily clearing away the mud

176 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xv.

which had deposited itself on the floors of the houses. An
extensive series of wooden fortifications protected the houses
from being carried away by the ice. For four months of
the year the village was a busy scene, full of life and
activity, but for the remaining eight months a solitary man
and a dog kept watch over the property of the Company,
and even they had to desert their charge and escape to the
shore during the breaking-up of the ice.

Three rooms were generously placed at our disposal, and
we proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as the cir-
cumstances would permit. Our first care was to buy a brace
of willow-grouse and a bean-goose for the pot ; our next to
purchase eggs of the yellow-headed wagtail, bean goose,
willow grouse, and long-tailed duck. A nest of the white
wagtail, which we found, contained remarkably brown eggs ;
it was made chiefly of roots, and a little stalky grass lined
with reindeer hair. The next day, peasants brought us two
nests of the yellow-headed wagtail ; these also were com-
posed of fine roots and dry leafy grass, the inside lined with
reindeer hair; one had, besides, two small feathers and a
piece of duck-down.

The mosquitoes, that of late had tried us severely, were
now giving us a respite, driven back by the cold north wind
and occasional snowstorms. All day I kept indoors, going
out but for half an hour, when I bagged a Siberian chiff-chaff
and a red-throated pipit, perched in a tree. The nests came
in plentifully. The first day of our stay were brought in to
us those of the blue-throat, the redpole, the reed-bunting, the
willow- warbler, two of the bean-goose, with the goose snared

CHAP. xv. THE TUNDRA. 177

upon it, and one of the pintail duck. With these were
brought two widgeon's eggs. The weather continued very
cold ; the Petchora looked sullen and tempestuous under the
dark sky and bleak wind. The next day we again kept
indoors, profiting by our enforced captivity in having a
general overhauling of our skins. We found the Siberian
chiff-chaff the commonest warbler amongst the willows of
Alexievka. Its note is a " ching-chevy " repeated three or
four times in rapid succession, the accent laid on the
"ching," and the warble generally, but not always, ending
with a final " ching." Probably owing to the coldness of the
weather we did not then hear it in full song, as we had at Ust-
Zylma and Habariki. We found Buffon's skuas numerous in
Alexievka ; they were usually in flocks of five or six. There
seemed to be only one common sparrow in the place, and
this I shot.

The 22nd of June was inscribed in our journal as a red-
letter day. We were dead tired when we turned into our
hammocks at half-past ten the night before, and slept the
clock round and an hour over, rising at half-past eleven.
When we woke we found it was a bright warm day, the
wind had dropped, and the great river looked no longer
like an angry sea. W"e decided to cross it, ordered our men
to get the boat ready, made a hasty breakfast, and set sail
at last for the land of promise, the mysterious Tundra, the
Aarka Ya of the Samoyedes, the Bolshya Zemlia of the
Kussians. We pictured this great land to ourselves as a
sort of ornithological Cathay, where all sorts of rare and
possibly unknown birds might be found. So far we were

N

1 78 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xv.

just a little disappointed with the results of our trip. July
would soon be upon us, and we had not solved yet one of the
six problems that we had proposed to ourselves as the main
objects of our journey. We had not seen the least trace
of the knot, the curlew sandpiper, the sanderling, or the
grey plover. Some birds that we had at first fancied
might be little stints in full breeding plum age, we were now
thoroughly convinced were nothing but Temminck's stints,
and as we had hitherto met with but one species of swan, we
had reluctantly come to the conclusion that we had not yet
seen Bewick's swan. We congratulated ourselves that our
observations on the arrival of migratory birds at TJst-
Zylma were not without interest. We were much pleased
that we had shot one specimen of the Arctic willow-warbler.
The abundance of yellow-headed wagtails, and the prospect
of bringing home many of the eggs of this rare bird, was a
source of considerable satisfaction to us. Our two best
things were undoubtedly the new pipit and the Siberian
chiff-chaff. We hoped both these birds might be new, but
our acquaintance with the various Indian species that might
possibly migrate into this region was not sufficient to warrant
us in entertaining more than a hope. We therefore looked
forward to our first day on the tundra with more than usual
anxiety and interest.

The tundra forms the east bank of the Petchora, and we
anchored our boat under a steep cliff, perhaps sixty feet high,
a crumbling slope of clay, earth, sand, gravel, turf, but no
rock. We looked over a gently rolling prairie country,
stretching away to a flat plain, beyond which was a range of

CHAP. xv. VEGETATION. 179

low rounded hills, some eight or ten miles off. It was in
fact a moor, with here and there a large flat bog, and every-
where abundance of lakes. For seven or eight months
in the year it is covered with from two to three feet of
snow. Snow was still lying in large patches in the more
sheltered recesses of the steep river-banks ; and on one of the
lakes a large floe of ice, six inches thick, was still unmelted.
The vegetation on the dry parts of the tundra was chiefly
carices, moss, and lichen, of which the familiar reindeer-
moss was especially abundant. In some places there were
abundance of cranberries with last year's fruit still eatable,
preserved by the frost and snow of winter. Here and there
we met with a dwarf shrub, not unlike a rhododendron,
with a white flower and aromatic- scented leaves (Ledmn
palu8tre), a heath -like plant with a pale red flower (Andro-
meda polifolia), 'and dwarf birch (Betula nana) running on
the ground almost like ivy. The flat boggy places had evi-
dently been shallow lakes a few weeks ago after the sudden
thaw, and were now black swamps, water in the middle,
grown over with yellow-green moss, and carices towards the
edge. They were separated from each other by tussocky
ridges of moor, which intersected the plain like the veins on
the rind of a melon. • We found no difficulty in going where
we liked; our indiarubber waterproofs were all-sufficient.
We crossed the wettest bogs with impunity, seldom sinking
more than a foot before reaching a good foundation, a solid
pavement of ice. Birds were but thinly scattered over
the ground ; but there were sufficient to keep our curiosity
on the qui vive. The commonest bird was the Lapland

iSo

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XV.

bunting ; and we took two of their nests in the tussocky
ridges between the little bogs. The next commonest bird
was the red-throated pipit ; and we took two of their nests
in similar positions. As we marched across the tundra we
fell in with some dunlins,* and took a couple of their nests.
This was encouraging. The dunlin was a bird we had not
seen at Ust-Zylma, and one possibly that migrated direct
across country from Ust-Ussa. We had not walked more
than a couple of miles inland before we came upon a
small party of plovers. They were very wild, and we found
it impossible to get within shot of them ; but a distant view
through our binocular almost convinced us that we had met
with the grey plover t at last. We had not walked very far

* The dunlin (Tringa alpina, Linn.)
is a circumpolar bird visiting the
British Islands in winter, and breeding
in considerable numbers in Scotland,
being . most numerous in the autumn
migration. Its principal breeding-
ground is on the tundras beyond the
limit of forest growth, but it is also
found nesting in considerable numbers
south of the Arctic circle. It winters
in the basin of the Mediterranean and
in Africa as far south as Abyssinia.
Eastwards it winters in Beloochistan,
India, China, and Japan. On the
American continent it migrates as far
south as the Southern States and Cuba.
This was another of the species which
we did not see on migration at Ust-
Zylma, the bulk of the migration pro-
bably taking place along the coast.
We met with it on the tundra as far
north as we weut.

t The grey plover (Squatarola helve-
tica, Linn.) was one of the birds which
we failed to observe at Ust-Zylma during
migration, the main flocks probably
migrating along the coast. To obtain
the eggs of this species was one of the
principal objects of our journey, the
only authentic specimens known to
exist being those collected by Midden-
dorff near the north-east cape in Siberia>
The grey plover is a cosmopolitan bird*
being found more or less abundantly
in every portion of the globe. In the
British Islands it is only known as a
spring and autumn migrant, being
much more numerous in the latter
season than in the former. Its breeding
grounds are the tundras above the
limit of forest growth, where, however,
it appears to be extremely local. It
passes through Central and Southern
Europe on migration, wintering in

CHAP. XV.

GREY PLOVER.

181

before other plovers rose ; and we determined to commence
a diligent search for the nest, and offered half a rouble to
any of our men who should find one. Our interpreter
laughed at us, and marched away into the tundra with a
" C'est impossible, monsieur." We appealed to our Sa-
moyede, who stroked his beardless chin, and cautiously
replied, " Mozhna." The other men wandered aimlessly up
and down ; but the Sarnoyede tramped the ground sys-
tematically, and after more than an hour's search found a
nest on one of the dry tussocky ridges intersecting the bog,
containing four eggs about the size and shape of those of the
golden plover, but more like those of the lapwing in colour.
The nest was a hollow, evidently scratched, perfectly round,
somewhat deep, and containing a handful of broken slender
twigs and reindeer-moss. Harvie-Brown concealed himself
as well as he could behind a ridge, to lie in wait for the bird
returning to the nest, and after half an hour's watching shot
a veritable grey plover. Soon afterwards another of our
men found a second nest, also containing four eggs, in
exactly a similar situation. Harvie-Brown took this nest
also in hand, and in about a*n hour succeeded in shooting
the female. The third nest was found by the Samoyede.
This time I lay down behind a ridge some thirty yards from
the nest, and after waiting a quarter of an hour caught sight
of the bird on the top of a distant tussock. Presently she
ran nearer to another ridge, looked round, and then ran on

South Africa, India, South China, the
islands of the Malay Archipelago, and
Australia. In the western hemisphere

its range has not been so accurately
recorded, but it is known to winter in
Cuba and some parts of South America.

i'82 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xv.

to the next, until she finally came within fifty yards of
where I was lying. I had just made up my mind to risk a
shot when she must have caught sight of me, and flew right
away. In a quarter of an hour I caught sight of her again,
approaching by short stages as before, but from an opposite
direction. I must have been in full sight of her. When
she had approached within fifty yards of me, as near as I
could guess, I fired at her with No. 4 shot and missed. I
remained reclining where I was, with little hope that she
would try a third time to approach the nest, and whiled
away the time with watching a Buffon's skua through my
glass as it cautiously approached in my direction. Turning
my head round suddenly I caught sight of the grey plover
running towards the nest within fifty yards of me. I lifted
my gun and fired again, but was so nervous that I missed her
a second time. I was so vexed that I got up and walked
towards the skua, which still remained in statu quo. I
missed a shot at it too, spent some time in a vain search for
its nest, and returned to my old quarters. In ten minutes I
saw the grey plover flying up. It took a wheel in rny
direction, coming almost within shot, and evidently took
stock of me, and satisfied itself that I was a harmless animal
practising with blank cartridge, and having no evil design
upon its eggs. It alighted about fifty yards beyond the nest,
and approached less timidly than before. When it came within
fifty yards of me I fired, this time with No. 6 shot, and laid
the poor bird upon its back. As we returned to our boat
Harvie-Brown found a fourth nest, and, after watching as
before, secured the bird. We accidentally broke two of the

CHAP. xv. BIRDS' EGGS. 183

eggs belonging to the third nest, but reached Alexievka at
midnight with fourteen identified grey plover eggs. Two
sittings were quite fresh, and made us an excellent omelette
for breakfast the next morning. The other two were very
slightly incubated.

On the tundra we saw several Buffon's skuas, and shot
two. I also shot a willow grouse on a piece of swampy
ground near a lake, where a few dwarf willows were growing.
On the lakes we saw many pairs of long-tailed ducks. A
few pairs of y el tow-headed wagtails, which evidently had
nests, a redwing, a Temminck's stint, a few pairs of bean-
geese, a redpole, and a hawk, which, as far as I could make
out with my glass, was a male peregrine — this completed
the list of birds we saw on the tundra.

On our return to head-quarters we found that the price we
had paid for the eggs to the workmen had induced many of
them to go out bird-nesting, and at night our bag for the
day stood as under, as far as eggs were concerned :

Giey plover H

Dunlin 7

Great snipe 4

Lapland bunting 25

Ked-tliroated pipit 39

Yellow-headed wagtail 10

Mealy redpole 10

Keed bunting 12

Kedwing 3

Bean goose 11

Widgeon (with down) 17

Temminck's stint 4

162

This was a grand haul. Any little lingering feeling of

184 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xv.

disappointment which we still experienced, was now com-
pletely gone. The grey plover eggs alone would have
made our trip a success. They were unquestionably the first
that had ever been taken in Europe. We spent the next
two days in blowing our eggs and writing up our jour-
nals, occasionally strolling out among the willows on the
island, to bag a few yellow-headed wagtails and other birds
to keep Piottuch employed. We found that the swans'
eggs that we had brought from Kuya were perfectly fresh.
The eggs of the bean-goose, on the contrary, some of them
more than a week old, were mostly considerably incubated.
The ducks' eggs were all fresh, or nearly so. Most of these
were widgeon's, pale cream-coloured eggs ; the down large,
dark brown, very distinctly tipped with white and with pale
whitish centres. The red-throated pipits' and Lapland bun-
tings' eggs were, many of them, too much sat upon to be
easily blown, as were also the dunlins' eggs. The eggs of
Temminck's stint, red-necked phalarope, yellow-headed wag-
tail, and most of the redpoles were all fresh or very slightly
sat upon. The eggs of the gulls, both those of the common
species and of the Arctic herring-gull, were quite fresh,
whilst those of the Arctic tern were, some fresh, and some
considerably incubated. During these two days we found
several nests of the fieldfare on the island, a nest of the
willow-warbler and one of the yellow-headed wagtail. The
latter was on the ground, concealed amongst the old tangled
grass, which the floods had twisted round a stake. It was
principally composed of dry herbage, with one or two
feathers in the lining. Our two rarse aves, which we

CHAP. xv. PETCHORA PIPIT. 185

christened the Petchora pipit and the Siberian chiff-chaff',
were by no means uncommon, but we failed to find either
of their nests. Amongst the nests, however, which our
excellent coadjutants the Zyriani brought us was one which
we at once concluded could belong only to the Petchora
pipit. It contained five perfectly fresh eggs, larger than
those of the red-throated pipit, and similar in colour to those
of the meadow pipit. The nest was somewhat larger than
that of the red-throated pipit, composed of more aquatic-
looking flat-leaved grass, and contained fragments of Eguiseta
in the lining. Our collection of eggs increased rapidly. We
had now 145 sittings, numbering 681 eggs.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

STANAVIALACHTA.

CHAPTER XVI.

The tundra near the Yooshina river — Golden plover's eggs — Various nests —
Lapland bunting — Various birds — Richardson's skua — Various means of pro-
pelling our boat — The tundra near Stanavialachta — Eyrie of a peregrine falcon
— Various nests — Abundance of willow-grouse — Nest of the willow-grouse —
Visit to two islands in the delta.

THE next day we left Alexievka in the morning to spend
a few days exploring the tundra in the neighbourhood of
Stanavialachta, the old loading-place of the Petchora Timber-
trading Company, about forty versts down the river, where,
we learnt, there were several wooden houses that we could
occupy. We sailed about twenty versts down to the mouth
of a small tributary called the Yooshina. The tundra here

CHAP. xvi. BIRDS. 187

was less marshy, the ground more hilly, and upon it were
more willows. The country looked so inviting that we cast
anchor and went on shore for a stroll. We soon saw some
plovers, and were in hopes of a second haul of grey plovers
eggs. After a time our Samoyede discovered a nest, but the
eggs in it were of a much lighter ground colour than those
we had found before. We waited and shot the bird, but
to our disappointment it turned out to be a golden plover.
We afterwards saw several more. We could not detect any
difference in the habits of the two species at the nest. We
secured a bean-goose off its nest with seven eggs, and were
very successful in finding nests of small birds. We took eggs
of reeve, ringed plover, willow-warbler, Lapland bunting, red-
throated pipit, blue-throated warbler, redwing, Temminck's
stint, and willow grouse. The redwing's nest contained six
eggs. It was in a willow about four feet from the ground.
Eedpoles were common, and oftener to be met with on the
ground than in the willow and birch bushes. The Lapland
bunting we constantly saw both running and hopping on the
ground. These charming birds were very tame and very
numerous. They perched freely in the bushes. They were
busily employed in the duties of incubation, and we rarely, if
ever, heard them sing. In Finmark I used to hear their song
constantly ; but then they were only just beginning to breed.
We saw many red-throated pipits, carrying flies in their
mouths, evidently destined to feed their young, and if we came
inconveniently near their nests, they would fly uneasily from
bush to bush. Near a couple of deserted turf huts we noticed
the white wagtail and the wheatear. Yellow-headed wagtail

1 88

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAF. XVI.

was also frequently met with on the tundra, but not in any-
thing like the numbers in which we found it on the islands
of the delta. On the banks of the great river numerous
Siberian herring-gulls were slowly sailing past, and we shot
four. I shot a Eichardson's skua,* which heedlessly flew
within range of my gun. This was the first example of this
species which we had yet seen. It was as white underneath
as the Buffon's skuas, but the centre tail-feathers were much
shorter, Curiously enough we never met with the dark-
bellied variety of Kichardson's skua in the Petchora. It
must be the western form. I found it by far the commonest
variety in Finmark. We saw a few Arctic terns, and got
one egg. On the lakes the long-tailed duck was common,
and I shot two males. These birds are very quarrelsome,
and by no means so shy as the other ducks. My companion
identified a red-breasted merganser,t but did not succeed in

* Richardson's skua (Stercorarius
crepidatus, Gmel.) we found upon
the tundra mingling with the large
flocks of Buffon's skuas, or scattered
in pairs over their breeding haunts.
Nowhere did we find them so abundant
as the latter species, of which we
obtained no eggs, though we found
several nests of the former. Richard-
son's skua is a circumpolar bird,
breeding upon most of the islands
of the Arctic Ocean. In winter it
distributes itself along the coasts of
Europe and Africa, extending eastwards
as far as Scinde. It has not been re-
corded from the western shores of the
Pacific, but it appears to be found on
both coasts of the American continent,

occasionally wandering south of the
equator.

f The red-breasted merganser (Mer-
gus serrator. Linn.) is also a circumpolar
bird, breeding throughout the Arctic
regions and in the northern portion of
the temperate zone. In the British
Islands it breeds in Scotland, and is
frequently met with in winter in most
parts of England. The European birds
winter in the south, rarely, if ever,
crossing the Mediterranean. The Sibe-
rian birds winter in China and Japan,
and the North American examples
retire to the Southern States. The
first bird of this species was seen by
Harvie - Brown at the lakes on the
tundra to the south of the Yooshina

GHAP. XVI.

STANAVIALACHTA.

189

shooting it. I saw a great snipe, a large flodk of red-necked
phalaropes, a few pairs of fieldfares, and several black-
throated divers. Every day the tundra became gayer with
flowers, and we continually regretted that we were not
botanists. I noticed Equisetum variegatum for the first time.
The evening, or what ought to have been the evening,
turned out so cold, with a strong contrary wind, against
which our stupid keelless boat could make little headway,
that finding the tide was also against us, we cast anchor in a
creek for a night's rest. In the morning, by dint of hard
rowing for some time, then of thrusting with a pole, as is
done in the flat-bottomed boats on the Grecian lagoons, then
turning out two of our men, and making them drag us along,
canal-boat fashion, we at length arrived at Stanavialachta.
We spent the day in making the Company's deserted houses
sufficiently weatherproof to afford us good shelter for a few
days. In the evening we turned out for a stroll ; the tundra
in this locality was much more hilly, and was diversified
with more lakes than in the neighbourhood of Alexievka.
The high ground was very dry, and we seldom came upon
any impassable bog. The vegetation also was more abund-
ant, the flowers more varied, and the willows and dwarf
birch-trees more numerous. The weather was very unfavour-
able : a strong gale was blowing from the west ; it was very

river. He fired at it and wounded it
severely. They were afterwards seen
by him on six different occasions, and
perfectly identified, viz. at Alexievka,
Bougrai, and on the river Dvoinik,
and on the small river flowing into the

inland sea. They always defied capture,
diving rapidly at the flash, swimming
a long way up or down stream, and
reappearing out of range. We failed
to discover the nest.

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XVI.

cold, with occasional attempts at rain ; yet we saw many
birds. The red-throated pipit was by far the commonest.
My companion shot a meadow-pipit from a tree, and caught
another sitting on its nest. We saw several golden plover,
a flock of seven or eight Buffon's skuas, a pair of dotterel,*
one or two shore-larks, besides securing the nest of a bean-
goose containing two eggs. On the grassy top of a mound,
halfway do\vn the mud cliffs overlooking the great river, and
within sight of the Arctic Ocean, I came upon the eyrie of a
peregrine falcon. It contained four eggs, one of which was
much lighter in colour than the others. This mound had
probably been used for some years as a nesting-place by the
falcons, since the grass was much greener upon it than upon
the surrounding places. A little way off there rose another
mound, just similar to it, and this was apparently the falcons'
dining-table, for scattered all about it were feathers of
grouse, of long-tailed cluck, and of divers small birds.

While I remained near the nest, the two falcons hovered
around, uttering sharp cries; when I approached nearer still,
they redoubled their screams, hovered over me, closed their
wings, and descended perpendicularly till within a few yards
of my head. Their movements were so rapid that I wasted

* The dotterel (Eudromias morinellus,
Linn.) is one of those birds which are
not found east of the Himalayas and
the watershed between the Yenesay and
the Lena. In the British Islands it is
principally known as a spring and
autumn migrant, a few only remaining
to breed on the Cumberland and Scotch

mountains. Its great breeding-grounds
are on the grassy hills on the tundras,
beyond the limit of forest growth. In
the rest of Europe, South-Western
Siberia, and Turkestan it passes through
on migration, wintering in Persia and
Africa north of the equator.

CHAP. xvr. NESTS. 191

half-a-dozen cartridges in trying to secure them, and had at
last to leave them baffled in the attempt. My companion
and I returned to the charge on the following day ; but again
we were defeated. A mile up the river, however, we found
a second eyrie upon an exactly similar green-topped mound.
The nest contained three eggs, and the behaviour of the
birds, as we neared it, was the same as had been that of the
falcons of the day before. My companion succeeded in
shooting the male. We found many nests of other birds.
Our Samoyede in the morning brought us one of the black-
throated diver, containing two eggs, and in the course of the
day we found a second. We also secured nests of the golden
plover, long-tailed duck, wheatear, Temminck's stint, blue-
throat, and Lapland bunting; in the latter were young
birds. Our most interesting find, however, was the nest, with
two eggs, of Richardson's skua, placed on a tussock of
mossy ground. It was lined with some reindeer moss and
leaves of the surrounding plants. The devices of the birds
to deceive us, as we came near it, attracted our attention
and revealed its vicinity. They often alighted within fifteen
yards of us, shammed lameness and sickness, reeled from
side to side as if mortally wounded, then when we persisted
in our onward course they flew boldly at us, and stopped
repeatedly.

We again saw the dotterels, but apparently not yet
nesting. Willow-grouse were as plentiful on this part of
the tundra as red grouse on the Bradfield moors on the
12th. Their white wings, their almost entirely white bodies,
made them very conspicuous objects. They usually rose

IQ2 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvi.

within shot from a patch of willow cover. Sometimes we
would see a pair knocking about the tundra, like two big
white butterflies, with a peculiar up-and-down flight, then
they would go tumbling into a willow-grown knoll on the
hillside. It might be owing to their extreme conspi-
cuousness that their flight always seemed so much more
clumsy than that of the red grouse. One of their nests,
which we found on the ground, contained a baker's dozen of
eggs. It was a mere hollow scraped in the turf, lined with
a leaf or two, a little dry grass, and a few feathers. The
next day we succeeded in shooting the female peregrine,
on the first eyrie we had discovered, then, after taking a
sketch of the place, we set oat for Alexievka, visiting on our
way a couple of islands on the delta. The first on which we
disembarked was very marshy, and covered with small
willows. On this island the willow- war biers were rare, but
we occasionally heard the Siberian chiff-chaff, and we noticed
one almost incessantly repeating " chi-vit'-che-vet'." The
yellow-headed wagtail was common, the shore-lark disap-
peared altogether, the Lapland bunting was represented by
a solitary bird. Eed-throated pipits were still numerous ;
but we did not see the meadow pipit. The sedge warbler
abounded. We also saw several Temminck's stints, phala-
ropes, a flock of eight Buffon's skuas, and ducks of various
sorts. The other island was almost entirely a grassy marsh,
interspersed with spaces of open water. A flock of Siberian
herring-gulls hovered about a party of fishermen, who were
catching with a seine net a small fish exactly resembling
the herring. Temminck's stints congregated in great num-

CHAP. xvi. BOLVANKAYA BUCHT.

193

bers on the dry or drying mud, but we could find no trace of
their nests. Phalaropes single and in flocks were common ;
we took three of their nests, also one of a tern. Ducks as
usual abounded ; we noticed among them a pair of shovel-
lers, and carried off a nest containing three eggs and a little
down, which belonged to this bird. On the river we con-
tinually passed flocks of scaup and black scoter.

The sketch of Stanavialachta at the head of this chapter
was taken from the eyrie of one of the peregrines ; the
second eyrie was ha] f- way down the point to the extreme
left. To the right in the distance is the eastern boundary
of the Bolvankaya Bucht ; to the left, the outer islands of the
Delta.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

0

GREY" PLOVER'S NEST AND YOUNG.

CHAPTER XVII.

Examination of nests — Excursion to Wasilkova — Search for breeding haunts of
Bewick's swan — News from England — Grey plover's eggs — Flock of Buffon's
skuas — Black scoter's nest — Watching for skuas' nests — Another nest of grey
plover — Scaup's eggs — The Zyriani.

ON the 29th. of June the weather was very wet. We spent
the day in blowing eggs and 'examining our nests. We

CHAP. xvii. LAKE WASILKOVA. 195

had now five nests, which we were pretty sure were- those
of our new pipit ; they were entirely distinct from that of the
red-throated pipit. Instead of being composed of fine round
grasses they were made of flat-leaved grass, knotted water-
plants and small leaves ; in two of these were Equisetas. The
eggs in them were larger, more lark-like, a dark ring circled
the larger end, and they were all more or less mottled,
especially those of the lighter variety.

Buffon's skua, we found, had been feeding upon beetles
and cranberries ; another fact worth noticing was that the ten
great snipes which we shot near Pustazursk were all males.

The following morning proving fine we set off on an
excursion to Lake Wasilkova, which at high tide was but a
bay of the Petchora. The tundra inland was the usual
stretch of rolling moorland, swamp and bog, interspersed
with lakes and ranges of low sandy hills. On the swamps
we found dunlins, on the moors golden plover, and once we
saw a grey plover. In both localities we met the Lapland
bunting and the red-throated pipit, and the dry grassy hills
were haunted by shore-larks. On one of the lakes and
along the coast, we came upon Siberian herring-gulls ; long-
tailed ducks abounded on the stretches of open water, but
we failed to find a nest. We came to a spot on the shore
where a pair of peregrines had built their eyrie, but the
peasants had taken the eggs away for food. Under a low
willow bush we shot a black scoter as she sat on her nest.
Once we saw a hen-harrier beating up the hillsides, and
caught sight of a white-tailed eagle, as it flew overhead.
Among the willows in the low swampy ground we shot a

196 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvn.

pair of wood sandpipers, and caught three of their young,
apparently a couple of days old. We also saw a raven and
many Buffon's skuas. During the day the mosquitoes were
very troublesome in the sheltered parts of the tundra, but
a cold north wind kept the hilltops clear.

Hitherto, we had been unable to identify the swans that
during our voyage had flown overhead, or settled on the ice
in the river. We were convinced in our minds that there
were two different sizes, but had been unable to establish the
fact. On one island, near Kuya, we had found one nest
containing four large eggs, but we had failed to secure the
bird. To determine the breeding haunts of Bewick's swan
was the hope and one of the principal objects of our journey ;
as yet the offer of five roubles reward for any swan's eggs
accompanied by the parent bird, had resulted only in two or
three nests being brought to us, but in no case had the swan
been snared. Our Samoyede now brought us two swan's
eggs that he had found thrown out of a nest, and advised us
of a second nest containing four eggs. We despatched him
at once with a trap to the nest to try and catch the swan.
That day we also bought two very small swan's eggs, smaller
than those of the ordinary wild swan, from a fisherman. He
told us that his mate had the skin of the parent bird, which
he had caught at the nest. The fishing encampment from
which he came was lower down the river, on an island
opposite the hamlet of Stanavialachta. We could not
think this was a made-up story, for the man could not have
heard of the reward we had offered for eggs accompanied
with the captured parent bird, as we were the first to speak

CHAP. XVII.

SWAN'S NEST.

197

to him on his arrival. We therefore at once determined
that if we did not discover Bewick's swan in the neighbour-
hood of Alexievka, we would make an excursion to Stanavia-
lachta for the express purpose of obtaining the head and
skin of the bird whose eggs we had just bought.

The following day our Samoyede returned from his futile
excursion in quest of the swan. He had failed to secure her.

A SWAN'S NEST.

From the appearance of the trap it seemed as if the swan
had shuffled up to her nest on her belly, after the manner of a
diver, for the trap had gone off and only secured a few breast
feathers. Simeon set off on a second expedition. The first
time the nest had been discovered the eggs were exposed to
view, this time they were carefully covered with down. Simeon

'98 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvn.

now reset the trap, this time laying it over the eggs, and
carefully concealing it with the down. His hope was that
the bird would remove the down with her beak and be snared
by the neck. On the morrow he came back to us, however,
with the four eggs and no swan ; she had never returned,
having apparently forsaken her nest, as we had feared she
would. Simeon brought with him four ducks' nests, but the
down was all mixed and the find was therefore valueless.
These are some of the disappointments caused by the clumsy
mismanagement of untrained men. A cold east wind that
blew all day, prevented us doing much ; we went out for an
hour only, and shot a few yellow-headed wagtails, and a
phalarope. We had plenty to interest us however, in read-
ing the letters and papers that had reached us from England.
The steamer had arrived from Ust-Zylma the day before,
bringing us tidings of home from April 4th to May 13th,
inclusive. The post had reached Ust-Zylma on the 26th;
the last letters had therefore been five weeks en route, and
so far as we know they had not been delayed in Archangel.
From Ust-Zylma to Alexievka they would have taken more
than another week to travel, had it not been for the steamer.
On the 13th of May the Consul at Archangel wrote that
the ice on the Dvina was expected to break up in seven
days. A letter dated the 26th described the Dvina as quite
free from ice for some days past, showing that it and the
Petchora broke up within a day or two of each other.

The cold north-east wind that continued blowing kept us
near home, but as it also kept the mosquitoes at bay we did
not complain very bitterly of it. In the face of the cutting

CHAP. xvii. GREY PLOVERS. 199

gale we crossed over to the tundra on the following day, in
search once more of the grey plovers. On the way we visited
an island and took a nest of the ringed plover. Soon after
landing at our destination we soon heard the note of the
birds we were in search of, and saw two or three, but could
not discover any signs of their having a nest. After our
previous experience we decided to vary our tactics. Hitherto
we had found the nests by sheer perseverance in searching,
and had afterwards watched the female to the nest and shot
her. We now decided to watch the female on to the nest in
the first instance, and, having by this means found it, to secure
the female afterwards as a further and more complete identifi-
cation of the eggs. It was also perfectly obvious that the
extreme care we had taken not to alarm the bird was un-
necessary. Our little manoeuvre of walking away from the
nest in a body, leaving one behind lying flat on the ground to
watch, under the impression that the bird could not count
beyond three, and would think that we had all gone, was
clearly so much artifice wasted. The birds were evidently
determined to come back to their nests in spite of our
presence ; nor was there any cover to hide us if the contrary
had been the case. Our care not to handle the eggs until
we had secured the bird was also of no use, as we often
proved afterwards. On a marshy piece of ground I shot a
reeve ; and then we struck across a very likely piece of land,
little flat pieces of bog with mossy ridges between. Pre-
sently Harvie-Brown, who was in front, whistled ; and as I
was coming up to him I saw a grey plover to my left. He
called out to me that he had put up a pair near where he was

200 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvn.

standing. I soon caught sight of another bird, on the
ground, lifting its wings as if to attract me from its nest.
It then quietly ran off, and I went to the spot — but finding
nothing, lay down to watch. Harvie-Brown did the same
about eighty yards off. It was not long before I caught
sight of both birds at some distance. One, which I at once
concluded must be the male, remained in one spot, the other
was running towards me, stopping on some elevation every
few yards to look round. By-and-by it flew between Harvie-
Brown and me, and alighted on the other side of me. The
other bird soon followed, and remained as before, apparently
watching the movements of the restless bird, which I now
felt sure must be the female. To this latter bird I now
confined my attention, and kept it within the field of my
telescope for more than half an hour. It was never still for
more than a minute together; it kept running along the
ground for a few yards, then ascending one of the ridges
looking round and uttering its somewhat melancholy cry.
It crossed and recrossed the same ridges over and over again,
and finally disappeared behind a knoll about forty yards
ahead of me, and was silent. I carefully adjusted my tele-
scope on a knoll to bear upon the place in case I lost it,
and was just making up my mind to walk to the spot when
I again heard its cry, and saw it running as before. The
male was still in statu quo. The crossing and recrossing the
ridge upon which my telescope was pointed then continued
for another quarter of an hour, and at last the bird disap-
peared behind the same ridge as before. I gave her a
quarter of an hour's grace, during which she was perfectly

CHAP. xvn. BUFFON'S SKUA. 201

silent, and then sat up to see if Harvie-Brown was satisfied
that she was on the nest. His point of sight was not so
favourable as mine ; and thinking I had given up the watch
as hopeless, he fired off his gun as a last resource, and came
up to me. As soon as he fired, both birds rose almost
exactly in front of the knoll upon which my telescope
pointed. Upon his arrival to learn what I had made out,
I told him the nest was forty or fifty yards in front of my
telescope. We fixed one of our guns pointing in the same
direction, so that we could easily see it. We then skirted
the intervening bog, got our exact bearings from the gun,
and commenced a search. In less than a minute we found
the nest with four eggs. As before, it was in a depression
on a ridge between two little lakes of black bog. In re-
turning to our boat we crossed a higher part of the tundra
near the river bank, and saw some golden plovers. The
eggs in this, our fifth nest, were considerably incubated,
which was probably the reason why the birds showed more
anxiety to lure us away.

On our way back towards the river we crossed a marsh
where we saw some dunlins, and secured one young in down.
On the higher part of the tundra, nearer the water's edge,
were several golden plovers : we shot one, and noticed a pair
of grey plovers amongst them. The two species were quite
easy to distinguish even at a good distance, without the help
of a glass. On a piece of low tundra, near the Petchora,
we came upon a large flock of Buffon's skuas. My com-
panion stopped to watch the grey plovers, and I marched
after the skuas. We had usually seen these birds hawking

202 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvn.

like terns over the tundra, in parties of seven or eight;
now and then we had met a pair alone, on the ground. They
were always wild, difficult to approach, and hitherto we had
succeeded in shooting a few only. As I neared the spot
where the large flock was assembled, I watched them alighting
on the banks near the great river. I walked towards them,
and soon caught sight of a score of herring-gulls, on the shore
to the right. Before I had got within a hundred yards of the
latter, they all rose and flew towards me ; the skuas also rose
and followed them. I let the gulls go by and aimed at the
nearest skua, as soon as it came within range. Fortunately
I brought it down ; that moment I was surrounded by about
a hundred or a hundred and fifty skuas, flying about in all
directions, generally about ten remaining within shot. They
were very noisy, uttering a cry like " hack, hack " as they
darted towards me, or screaming wildly as they flew about.
This lasted about twenty minutes, during which I finished
what remaining cartridges I had, some of which were dust.
I missed several birds, but left seven killed and wounded
on the field. My companion now joined me; he brought
down four more and a Bichardson's skua ; the birds then
all retired except one, that kept flying from one to the other
of us, every now and then making a downward swoop, like
a tern, over our heads. We soon discovered the cause of
its anxiety ; a young skua in down, a day or two old, lay on
the ground at our feet. Our search for nest or eggs was
vain. As it was getting late, after shooting a pair of dun-
lins on a space of marshy ground, and a willow-grouse
among some dwarf willows, we returned to our boat, resolv-

CHAP. xvii. BLACK SCOTER. 203

ing to renew our search for eggs of Buffon's skua and grey
plover on the morrow. We turned to look towards the spot
of our encounter with the former : the whole flock had re-
turned to it ; they looked like great black terns on the wing
as they hovered over it, with their peculiar kestrel- or tern-
like flight. On several occasions after, we observed that the
skuas have many habits in common with the tern.

The north-east wind continued blowing the next day, but
the sunshine was bright and warm. When evening came on
and the sun got low down in the horizon, for of course it
never set, the wind increased and we felt it very cold.
We spent our morning blowing eggs. In the afternoon we
sent Cocksure on another expedition after a swan, whose
nest with four eggs had been found and brought to us by
one of our men. Towards four we crossed the river to the
tundra. Our crazy old flat-bottomed boat could only sail
with the wind dead on her stern, so we had to row with
the stream for about a mile down the river, and then sail
up again with the wind. By the appearance of the sur-
rounding landscape we calculated that since we had last
been on that part of the Petchora, the water must have
fallen four feet at least. Some of the islands had doubled
in size, and sandbanks lay bare, that before we had sailed
over unsuspecting. We chose for our disembarkation a
spot near a deserted house called Boogree, and soon after
landing we shot a black scoter off her nest. It contained
six eggs and an abundance of down ; it lay in a little hollow
sloping towards the river, and was entirely concealed amongst
dwarf birch. The scoter does not breed apparently on

204 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. XVIL

the islands, but prefers a drier situation oil the tundra, upon
some sloping bank, overlooking a river or a lake, and
sheltered by dwarf birch or willows. We first paid a visit
to the marshy ground and saw there many dunlins, Lap-
land buntings, and red-throated pipits ; one of the latter was
carrying in its bill a caterpillar at least an inch long. Our
next resort was to the river's sandy banks, where we found a
ring dotterel's nest. We then visited the Buffon's skua
ground. The large flock had left, but about a dozen re-
mained behind. We watched them for an hour, and shot
one. They were mostly hawking up and down the moor,
occasionally resting on the ground. Suddenly, a skua uttered
its alarm note ; it sounded as if we had approached too near
its nest. I whistled for my companion to come, and we
lay down, about 1'20 yards apart, for an hour. The skua
did not run about on the ground, but kept uneasily flying
from one spot to the other, seldom remaining long in one
place. One spot, however, it visited four times, and rested
longer in it than in the others. The third time it visited it
I made up my mind the nest was there, and carefully ad-
justed my gun on a hillock to cover the spot in case I lost
it. The fourth time the bird visited it, Harvie-Brown and
I got up together, each followed our bearings, and in about
a minute we crossed each other at the nest, in which were
two eggs. The bird was near at hand, shamming lameness
to attract our attention. My companion walked up to it
and shot — to our disappointment and disgust, not a Buffon's
skua, but a Kichardson's skua. After this we turned our
attention to the grey plover ground. We found one of our

CHAP. xvii. NESTS. 205

men trying to watch one of these birds on to the nest. We
lay down, one fifty yards to his right, and the other as much
to his left. The birds behaved exactly as those we watched
the day before. After the female had crossed and recrossed
one, hillock many times, and finally disappeared behind it,
I made up my mind that the nest was there, and rose. My
sudden appearance alarmed the male, who flew up, showing
his black axillaries very distinctly in the evening sunshine
as he skimmed over my head. We then all three rose, and
in less than a minute met at the nest, which contained three
eggs. I sat down to pack the eggs ; and Harvie-Brown
followed the male, who came up as we found the nest.
Whilst I was packing the eggs and warming my hands,
and talking " pigeon-Euss " with the man, the female came
within range, and I took up my gun and shot her, thereby
completing the identification of the eggs. On our return
home we found that Cocksure had sent word to us that the
swan had not revisited her nest as yet, and begged one of
us to go to relieve guard. My companion accordingly,
after a substantial meal, set off at midnight ; meanwhile
the men we paid to help us brought in the results of their
day's work : a red-throated diver, trapped on the nest, with
two eggs ; half-a-dozen phalaropes' eggs, a duck's nest, con-
taining seven large olive-grey eggs, and down, almost black.
These, they assured us, were the eggs of the lolshaya tchornaya
oofka (the great black duck). We recognised them, however,
to be the same as those our Samoyede had brought home on
the 2nd, and on which he had shot a female scaup. The
down tallied exactly with that he had then brought home,

206 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvir.

as well as with some taken later from the breast of a female
scaup. This convinced us that the eggs now brought in
were those of the scaup. The next take was a long-tailed
duck's nest, with five eggs, Then a man came in bringing
us four small nests of malenkya peteetza (small birds), a sedge-
warbler's, a red-throated pipit's and two willow-warblers'.

The men who had collected these spoils for us were in the
employment of the Company, to whom belong the steamers,
the yacht or cutter, everything upon the island of Alexi-
evka, and even the island itself. The Company derives
a large and profitable trade in timber, which is shipped
principally to Cronstadt for the Kussian Government.
Whether the company be Mr. Sideroff or Mr. Iconikoff,
or both, or neither, remains one of those commercial secrets
so common in Russia, and which nobody can ever get at
the bottom of. These employes in Alexievka were all
Zyriani from Ishma, a race of people said to be of Finnish
origin. Some were reported to be very rich, the proprietors
of large herds of reindeer. Like the people of Ust-Zylma,
they are peasants, but were described to us as being more
luxurious in their living and in the furniture of their houses.
They were also said not to get drunk so often as the Ust-
Zylma folk, but when inebriated, not to be good-natured
and obtrusively affectionate as these are prone to be, but
quarrelsome and given to fighting. They have the reputa-
tion of being better workmen, and certainly beat the Ust-
Zylmians hollow at bird-nesting. In feature or size the
two do not differ much ; perhaps the Zyrians' eyes are more
sunken and their .cheekbones a little more prominent;

CHAP. XVII.

ZYRIANI.

207

and there may be a greater number of red- and yellow-haired
men among them. There were several fishing encampments
of these peasants in different places down the river, and
we found that it was customary in the wealthier families
for one son to go in summer on the tundra, with the rein-
deer and the Samoyede servants. A Samoyede servant,
we were told, gets per annum 15 copecks; a sum which
probably represents his cost for the year. The language
of the Zyriani is totally different from Kuss, and belongs to
the agglutinative family of languages. The tribe belongs
to the Orthodox Greek Church, and not to that of the Old
Believers.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

KUYA.

CHAPTEE XYIII.

Second visit to Stanavialachta — Peregrine falcons — Plague of mosquitoes — Mid-
night on the tundra — Nest of the velvet scoter — Little Feodor sent in quest of
the swan's skin — A Russian bath — Feeder's return — Identification of eggs of
Bewick's swan — Mosquito veils — Our eighth nest of grey plovers — Our servants
— Our ninth nest of grey plovers — The tenth nest.

ON the following morning when my companion returned
from his watch at the swan's nest, which had turned out a
complete failure, we consulted with Piottuch what was to
be done. The swan had evidently forsaken her nest. Time
was rapidly flying, and we feared the breeding season would
be over before we had obtained identified eggs of the smaller
species. It did not appear as if we could do anything at
Alexievka ; we had evidently yet to learn how swans were

CHAP, xviii. SAMOYEDES. 209

trapped at their nests on the Petchora; and we came to
the conclusion that our wisest course was to go in search
of the peasant who owned the skin of the swan belonging
to the two small eggs we had bought some days ago. When
we last heard of him he was fishing at one of the islands
in the delta which we had visited not far from Stanavialachta,
and we determined to make a second expedition to this
locality. Fortunately for us, an opportunity occurred on
the following day to run over to this place in the steamer
belonging to the company. Outside the bar in the lagoon
the cutter was cruising about with pilots to bring any ship
which arrived up the river to Alexievka. The steamer had
to visit this cutter to take the men a fresh stock of pro-
visions, and we were delighted to make arrangements with
Capt. Engel to take us with him, to drop us at Stanavialachta,
and pick us up on his return.

We left Alexievka on the 6th of July and landed at our
old quarters, and learnt to our disappointment that the
peasant we were in quest of had found the fishing so bad that
he had given it up in disgust and returned to his native
village of Mekitza, some miles north of Alexievka. We were
determined to settle the question if possible : we ascertained
that he had not sold the swan-skin, but had taken it with
him ; so we decided to send one of our men to Mekitza as
soon as we returned to Alexievka. In the meantime we
started for the tundra to revisit our previous shooting-
grounds. We stopped a few minutes on the shore to watch
a family of Samoyedes fishing with a seine-net. They
seemed to be catching nothing but a small fish resembling a

210 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm.

herring, and even these did not appear to be at all plentiful.

Leaving the shore, our curiosity led us first to visit the

eyries of the two pairs of peregrine falcons, at each of which

we had shot one of the birds. We found that the male

of the first had paired with the female of the second; a

fresh lining of feathers had been put into the latter's nest,

and doubtless there would soon be eggs. The dotterels still

haunted the hillsides. We shot some near each of the

deserted houses — two by one, three by the other. Doubtless

the right thing to have done would have been to lie down

and watch the birds on to their nests and to have taken the

eggs. But, in the first place, a dotterel is very difficult to see

through a mosquito-veil ; the next, to lie down and become

the nucleus of a vast nebula of mosquitoes is so tormenting

to the nerves, that we soon chose to adopt the consolatory

conclusion that the grapes were sour and not worth the

trouble of reaching after ; or, in plain words, that the birds

had not begun to breed, and it w^as no use martyrising

ourselves to find their eggs. The mosquitoes were simply

a plague. 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. I was fortunate in the arrangement of

my veil, and by dint of indiarubber boots and cavalry

gauntlets, I escaped many wounds ; but my companion was

not so lucky. His net was perpetually transformed into a

little mosquito-cage; his leggings and knickerbockers were

by no means mosquito-proof; he had twisted a handkerchief

round each hand, but this proved utterly insufficient pro-

CHAP, xviii. % VELVET SCOTER. 211

tection : had it not grown cooler on the hills, as the sun got
low, he would certainly have fallen into a regular mosquito-
fever. We were told that this pest of mosquitoes was nothing
as yet to what it would become later. " Wait a while," said
our Job's comforter, " 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

, : -:^sfcW_

WATCHING GREY PLOVERS THROUGH A CLOUD OF MOSQUITOES.

half-a-dozen regiments of mosquitoes will rise between you
and the sight." When the coolness of evening set in we
had pretty good shooting for an hour or two ; but after nine
or ten o'clock we found nothing. There is very little to be
met on the tundra or anywhere else at midnight, for in spite
of brilliant sunshine, the birds retire to roost at the proper
time and all is hushed. Our best find was the nest of a
velvet scoter.* We shot the female as she rose from it ; there

* The velvet scoter (ffidemia fusca, I eastern hemisphere, though it is re-
Linn.) appears to be confined to the | placed in North America by a form so

212

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XVIII.

were eight eggs in it and a good supply of down. It was
placed under a dwarf birch, far from any lake or water.
We shot three willow-grouse and caught three young birds
in down. While we were seeking for them the male fre-
quently flew past within easy shot, and the female ran about
with head depressed and wings drooping, coming sometimes
within two or three yards of us. We saw two pairs of wood
sandpipers, who had established themselves in a small space
of marshy ground. They evidently had young, for they
were continually flying round and alighting upon the willows.
To search for young in down, through long grass, wearing
mosquito- veils, must prove a vain quest, and we did not long
pursue it. We caught the young of the Lapland bunting,
and shot one of this year's shore-larks, a very pretty bird.
We saw a few divers, a large harrier or eagle, and on the
shore of the Petchora we watched a flock of Siberian herring-
gulls stealing fish from the nets of the Samoyedes, and as
we went down river we came on another flock similarly
employed. We saw no swans on the tundra, but they
were common on the islands in the river ; one or two pairs
were frequently in sight, and still there continued to fly
overhead flocks of migratory ducks, always going north.

very closely allied as to be only just
specifically separable. In the British
Islands it is a winter visitant, possibly
occasionally breeding in Scotland. Its
breeding range extends north of the
Arctic circle, as far as the limit of forest
growth. In winter it is found in various
parts of Central and Southern Europe,

occasionally crossing the Mediterranean.
Eastwards it winters in China and in
Japan, in which latter country the
American form (CEdemia velvetena,
Cass.) is also found. In the valley of
the Petchora we did not observe it
farther north than latitude 68°.

CHAP. xvin. RUSSIAN BATH. 213

All the day it had been a dead calm, but for the slight south
breeze that had risen towards evening. The next morning
a long-unfelt pleasant breath of wind was blowing down ihe
river ; it was not enough, however, to drive back the visita-
tion of mosquitoes that was almost making us wish for the
blustering north gale back again.

Despatching Little Feodor, our most intelligent man, by
the steamer to Kuya, we bade him walk over to Mekitza,
then ferret out the peasant and the swan's skin, and bring us
home the latter. Meanwhile we spent the day blowing eggs.
In the evening we took a Kussian bath — an experience worth
describing. We lay down upon a platform in a wooden
house ; a primitive stove was in it, built of stones loosely
piled one upon the other ; a hole in the side of the house
with a sliding door let out the smoke. A wood-fire was
kindled in the stove ; it was allowed to go out when the
stones were thoroughly heated ; the steam resulting from
the pouring of a glass of cold water upon them soon cleared
the room of all foul air and smoke. As we lay stretched
on the platform we occasionally threw water upon the hot
stones, and flogged ourselves with a small broom com-
posed of birch-twigs, still clothed with leaves ; after which
we rubbed ourselves down with matting, sponged all over
with cold water, then went into another apartment to cool
ourselves, smoke a few papyros, and dress. The peasants
frequent these bath-houses, and often walk out of the hot
steam naked, the colour of boiled crabs, to plunge into the
Petchora.

The next day was one of our red-letter days. Little

2I4

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XVIII.

Feodor, our boatman, returned, bearing with him the longed-
for trophy — the swan's skin. He told us he had gone to
Mekitza, only to learn there that the peasant whom he
sought had departed to another island to fish. Going to his
house he found, however, that the man had left the skin with
his wife, and she, good soul, had cut off the beak and given
it to her children for a plaything. Feodor paid her a rouble
for the skin, with the feet still attached to it, and got the
beak into the bargain. There was no other swan's skin in
the house, nor, as far as we could ascertain, was there another
in the village ; this one was still soft and greasy, showing
the bird had been but recently killed. This, undoubtedly,
was the skin of a Bewick's swan ;* the beak also was equally
indisputable. The eggs in our possession were exactly the
size one would expect a swan so much smaller than the wild
swan would lay. We had every reason to believe and none
to doubt that this was, indeed, the skin of the bird caught
upon the nest containing the two eggs we had purchased.
The chain of evidence connecting them was in all reason
complete, and the identification of the eggs satisfactory.
Let us recapitulate and go over the links of the narrative,
the more fully to establish the conclusion we had arrived at.
Two peasants are fishing together at Pyon'ni, an island near
the mouth of the delta of the great river, twelve versts north

* Bewick's swan (Cygnus
Pall.) is occasionally found in winter
in the British Islands. It breeds on
the tundras above the limit of forest
growth from the valley of the Petchora

eastwards probably to the Pacific. In
winter it is found in various parts of
Europe and Asia as far south as China.
In the valley of the Petchora we found
it as far north as we went.

CHAP, xviir. SWANS. 215

of Stanavialachta. They find there a swan's nest, contain-
ing two eggs, and they set a trap for the bird, which they
succeed in catching. In the division of spoil, one takes the
eggs, the other the swan. One peasant, wearied out by the
pertinacity of the cold north-east wind, goes up stream to
fish in smoother waters. On his way he stops at Alexievka,
where we are, and we buy from him a number of ducks' and
gulls' eggs, also two swan's eggs unusually small. As we
purchase these we tell him that we shall be glad to pay the
price of any swan's skin he can get us. He replies that the
skin of the swan whose eggs he has just sold to us is in the
possession of his partner, that the bird was trapped at the
nest before they were taken out of it, adding that he has left
his mate fishing on an island opposite Stanavialachta. On
inquiry we find that two of our boatmen know this man, that
we have seen him ourselves on the island where we found the
two shoveller's eggs ; we remember that he made a haul with
a seine net of a small basketful of fish resembling herrings,
which he presented to one of our men. We now take the
first opportunity to go down to Stanavialachta and learn
there that this peasant, disgusted as his comrade was by the
prevalence of the cold north-east wind, has returned home
to Mekitza. We send our most intelligent man to his house
and get the skin.

The relative size of the two birds is very different, as may
be appreciated at a glance, without the help of measurements.
The bill of Bewick's swan is more than half an inch shorter
than that of the larger species; the lengths of the wing,
measuring from the carpal joint, are respectively 20^ inches

2i6 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm.

and 23J ; the lengths of the middle toes 5*15 and 6*1. Our
eggs of Bewick's swan were about 3T9¥ inches long. We have
eggs of other swans, doubtless of the large species, which
measure 4TV, 4-^, 4-^, and 4^ inches ; these measurements
make it seem probable that exceptionally large eggs of
Bewick's swan might be of the same size as exceptionally
small eggs of the common wild swan. The eggs appear to
vary very little in shape.

That afternoon I took a walk on the island, armed with
my stick gun. The birds were extremely tame. The yellow-
headed wagtail seemed more abundant than ever. Eeed
buntings also were common. I got a shot at a swan, but the
distance was a trifle too great. The weather was very hot,
and the mosquitoes were swarming. Our home-made mos-
quito veils proved a great success; they and our cavalry
gauntlets just made life bearable in these Arctic regions;
still we longed for the cold winds back again to expel the
plague of blood-sucking insects. Yeils are necessary evils,
but they interfere sadly with work, and increase much the
difficulty of finding the shot birds through the long grass.

The next morning a swan's egg made us an excellent
omelette for breakfast, after which I turned out for half an
hour amongst the willows to shoot a few yellow-headed
wagtails. They abounded on the marshy ground. I also
secured two or three redpoles, some reed buntings, and a
phalarope.

We set sail at noon, with a north-east wind, to visit the
tundra eight or ten versts higher up the great river. For
some distance before we landed the coast was very flat, with
willows down to the water's edge. Amongst these dwarf trees

CHAP. xvin. GREY PLOVER. 217

we repeatedly heard our two especial favourites the Pet-
chora pipit and the Siberian chiff-chaff. As soon as we
got beyond the willows we landed on the tundra, and started
in pursuit of a large flock of Buffon's skuas, but were soon
stopped by a pair of grey plovers, which showed by their
actions that we were near the nest. We lay down as before,
forty or fifty yards apart, and watched the birds. They ran
about, up and down, and all round us ; and at the end of half
an hour we were no wiser than at first. There was evidently
something wrong. Harvie-Brown then shouted to me, " Have
you marked the nest ?" I replied by walking up to him and
comparing notes. We then watched together for another
half-hour with exactly the same result. I suggested that we
must be so near the nest that the bird dare not come on, and
advised that we should retreat to the next ridge, which we
accordingly did. We had not done so many minutes before
the female made her way on to the ridge where we had been
lying. She then ran along the top of the ridge, passed the
place where we had been stationed, and came down the ridge
on to the flat bog towards where we then were. I whispered,
" She is actually crossing over to us." Suddenly she stopped,
lifted her wings and settled down on the ground. We both
whispered, almost in the same breath, " She is on the nest."
I added, " I saw her lift her wings as she settled on to the
eggs." Harvie-Brown replied, "So did I," and added, "I
can't hold out any longer against the mosquitoes." I replied,
" I am perfectly satisfied ; she is within range, take her."
He lifted his gun to his shoulder. She ran off the nest to
the top of the ridge and stood there until my companion
shot her. We then walked up to the nest, the first we

2i8 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvur.

had seen on the flat. The eggs were quite fresh, or nearly
so ; and the nest must have been made nearly a fortnight
later than those we had previously taken. During that
time the bogs had become much drier, so that we could
cross them without much difficulty ; and this would probably
be the reason why this nest was placed lower down. The
eggs had all the appearance of a second laying, being less
blotched than usual, one of them remarkably so. It is worth
noticing that whilst we were watching in our first position,
very near the nest, the birds were almost quite silent, and
did not call to each other as they usually do.

After carefully packing the eggs, we walked on, and
speedily started another pair. This time we lay down
together, as nearly as we could tell, on the spot from which
the birds rose, which seems to be generally from forty to fifty
yards from the nest. The clouds of mosquitoes formed such
a mist on the tundra that we had some difficulty in marking
our birds ; but by raking the horizon with a binocular, and
getting well stung through our veils in the process, we soon
found the female, and watched her on to a ridge just opposite
to us. She soon settled down ; and within a quarter of an
hour after we had lain down we were both perfectly satisfied
that she was on the nest. We gave her a few minutes' grace,
and then walked up to the nest, without making any effort
to shoot the bird, having perfectly identified her, and being
almost tired out by the mosquitoes. The eggs in this nest
were considerably incubated. The nest was placed, as before,
in a hollow on a ridge. The ground on this ridge was not so
mossy as usual, and there was much bare brown turf to be
seen. Whether this had anything to do with the colour of

CHAP, xviii. OUR SERVANTS. 219

the eggs it is difficult to say ; but the fact is that these eggs
are quite brown in ground-colour.

It was very late, or rather very early morning, when we
returned to our quarters, and had to spend an hour slaughter-
ing mosquitoes before we could make the room habitable ; then
we had our dinners to cook and our pipes to smoke before
we could retire to rest. At noon I turned out of my hammock
and spent the day indoors. The wind was north-west, and
there were continual hints of rain. Our men were tired after
the long row the day before. They were not in good condi-
tion, nor could it be expected they should be. They had
now reached the last day of a four weeks' fast, during which
they were supposed to eat nothing but bread and water, with
fish if they could get it. During the period of probation it
was intensely ludicrous to watch the expression on our steers-
man's face when he held up as many fingers as there still
remained days of fasting to be gone through, opening his
mouth wide the while, then grinning all over as he said,
" Moi skaffum." " Skaffum " is pigeon-English for " eat,"
derived, we were told, from the Swedish (skaffa, to provide).
This fellow's name was Feodor ; he was a good-natured
simpleton, indescribably lazy and always thinking of his
stomach — we had nicknamed him " Moi skaffum." Gavriel,
our other Kussian, was not very much sharper, but was by
no means lazy when directed in his work, but he had not
the sense to discover for himself what wanted doing. Our
half-bred Samoyede, also called Feodor, — Malenki Feodor
we dubbed him — was a sharp, active lad, always finding out
something to do ; with a little training Malenki Feodor
would have made an excellent servant. He learnt, when

220 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm.

with ns, to skin birds well, and was by this time a fair
nester. Simeon, our thorough-bred Samoyede, was a philo-
sopher, stolid, phlegmatic, and a good worker. He was our
bird-n ester par excellence. He knew the tundra well and
the birds upon it ; for three years he had lived in Varandai,
and in his palmier days had reindeer of his own. Nothing
moved Simeon; success did not elate him, nor failure
depress him. He would take the extra rouble we always
gave him when he brought us a rare bird's nest as a matter
of course, without a "thank you." And when, as we wit-
nessed once, he steadied the boat for a drunken German
captain, who brutally trod upon his hand, evidently thinking
it a fine thing to show his contempt for the poor Samoyede,
Simeon equally took the insult as a matter of course, did not
offer to withdraw his hand nor move a muscle of his face.
If Simeon had any hot blood in him, the veins of it must
have run very deep under his sallow skin.

The next day I did not do much either, but Cocksure
being out of birds, I turned out amongst the mosquitoes and
got him a few. I shot several yellow-headed wagtails, which
were as abundant as ever, and also three Terek sandpipers,
the first we had secured, although we had occasionally heard
their notes on the island. A nest of shovellers' eggs, quite
fresh, was brought to us during the day.

Our ninth nest of the grey plover we took on the 12th of
July. A stiff warm gale from the east, with occasionally a
smart shower of rain, kept the air clear of mosquitoes in the
morning. In the afternoon the wind fell, and the mosquitoes
were as bad as ever ; but we were too busy to heed them
much. At eleven we crossed to the tundra. We soon came

CHAP. xvin. BIRD NESTING. 221

upon a pair of grey plovers, which rose a couple of hundred
yards ahead of us, their wings glittering in a gleam of sun-
shine after a smart shower. These birds have frequently a very
curious flight as they rise from the nest, tossing their wings
up in the air, reminding one somewhat of the actions of a
tumbler pigeon. We lay down, as near as we could tell, to
the spot from which they rose, and were somewhat puzzled
at their behaviour. The male seemed equally, if not more
anxious than the female, running about as much as she did,
continually crying, and often coming very near us, and
trying to attract our attention by pretending to be lame.
The female rarely uttered a note. We suppose this must
have been because one of us was too near the nest. Harvie-
Brown moved his post of observation after we had spent some
time without being able to discover anything ; and then the
female behaved as usual, and I soon marked the position of
the nest. We walked straight up to it, and found the four
eggs chipped ready for hatching. We had no difficulty in
shooting both birds, and afterwards hatched out two of the
eggs, obtaining a couple of good specimens of young in
down. With a little practice this mode of finding birds'
nests becomes almost a certainty. One has first to be quite
sure which is the male and which is the female. When the
birds are near enough, and one can compare them together,
the greater blackness of the breast of the male is sufficient
to distinguish him ; but we found that the females varied
considerably in this respect, and that it was better to notice
the habits of the birds. The female generally comes first to
the nest, but she comes less conspicuously. She generally
makes her appearance at a considerable distance, on some

222 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm.

ridge of mossy land. When she has looked round, she runs
quickly to the next ridge, and looks round again, generally
calling to the male with a single note. The male seldom
replies ; but when he does so it is generally with a double
note. When the female has stopped and looked round many
times, then the male thinks it worth while to move ; but more
often than not he joins the female by flying up to her. The
female very seldom takes wing. She is very cautious, and,
if she is not satisfied that all is safe, will pass and repass
the nest several times before she finally settles upon it. The
female rarely remains upon one post of observation long ;
but the male often remains for ten minutes or more upon one
tussock of a ridge, watching the movements of the female.

We walked some distance before we came upon a second
pair ; but at length we heard the well-known cry, and got
into position. We spent nearly two hours over this nest,
and were quite at sea at the end of the time. We changed
our position several times, but to no purpose. The female
went here and there and everywhere, as much as to say,
" I'm not going on to the nest as long as you are so near."
By and by the mosquitoes fairly tired us out, and we gave
up the watching game and commenced a search. At last we
found out the secret of the bird's behaviour. We picked
up some broken egg-shells, and concluded at once that the
bird had young. We tried to find them, but in vain.
These two hours however were not wasted. The birds
came nearer to me than they had ever done before. I often
watched them at a distance of not more than ten yards,
and was able to hear their notes more distinctly. The note
most frequently used is a single plaintive whistle, kop, long

CHAP, xviir. PLOVERSKI LANGUAGE. 223

drawn out, the o pronounced as in German, and the con-
sonants scarcely sounded. This I am almost sure is the
alarm-note. It is principally uttered by the female when
she stops and looks round and sees something that she dis-
approves of. If the male shows any anxiety about the nest,
which he seems to do more and more as incubation pro-
gresses, he also utters the same note. The double note,
U-ee or Jcleep, the M dwelt upon so as to give it the value of
a separate syllable, is also uttered by both birds. It is
evidently their call-note. I have seen the female, when she
has been running away from the male, turn sharp round and
look towards him when he has uttered this note, exactly as
any one might do who heard his name called. Whilst we
were watching this pair of birds a couple of other grey
plovers came up, and called as they flew past. The male
answered the call and flew towards them. On the wing this
whistle is lengthened out to three notes. I had some diffi-
culty in catching this note exactly. It is not so often uttered
as the two others I have mentioned, and is generally heard
when you least expect it ; but I am almost sure it is a com-
bination of the alarm-note with the call-note — M-ee-Jcop. If
I wanted to make a free translation from Ploverski into
English I should say that M-ee means " Hallo ! old fellow,"
and Mp means " Mind what you are about!"

We procured our tenth nest of the grey plover the same
afternoon. It was found by our Sanaoyede, who brought us
three eggs and male and female shot at the nest. He acci-
dentally broke the fourth egg. As it contained a live young
bird, we placed these three eggs in our hatching-basket,
where we had made a snug nest of bean-goose-down.

224 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xvm.

By this time we were pretty well tired with tramping the
tundra. The ceaseless persecution of the mosquitoes, and
the stifling feeling caused by having to wear a veil with the
thermometer above summer heat, had taxed our powers of
endurance almost to the utmost; and we turned our faces
resolutely towards our boat ; but a most anxious pair of
grey plovers were too great an attraction to us to be resisted.
We watched them for some time, during which a pair of
ringed plovers persisted in obtruding themselves imperti-
nently between us and the objects of our attention. This
pair of grey plovers also puzzled us, and we concluded that
they possibly had young, and consequently we gave up the
search. We had each marked a place where we thought
the nest might be ; and we each of us went to satisfy our-
selves that it was not there. The two places were about
fifty yards apart. The birds first went up to Harvie-Brown
and tried to attract him away by flying about and feigning
lameness. Then they came to me and did the same. They
were so demonstrative that I felt perfectly certain of finding
the nest, and shot at the female. She dropped in the middle
of a wet bog. I then shot the male, walked up to him, and
left him with my basket and gun to struggle through the bog
to pick up the female. Before I got up to her, I saw her
lying on the turf on her breast with her wings slightly ex-
panded. I was just preparing to stoop to pick her up, when she
rose and flew away, apparently unhurt. I must have missed
her altogether, as she was evidently only shamming to draw
me away. I returned to search for the nest, and was unable
to find it. Whilst I was looking for it Harvie-Brown came
up, and I gave up the search, and we again turned towards

CHAP, xviii. YOUNG GREY PLOVER. 225

the boat. When we had got about halfway towards the
spot where Harvie-Brown had been looking, I caught sight
of a young grey plover in down, almost at my feet. Stooping
down to pick it up, I saw the nest with three eggs not a
yard from me. This was the last and eleventh nest of these
rare birds which we found. The young in down are very
yellow, speckled with black, and are admirably adapted for
concealment upon the yellow-green moss on the edges of
the little bogs close to which the grey plover seems always
to choose a place for its nest.

Our attempt to hatch the highly incubated eggs, and thus
obtain specimens of young in down, was successful. We
soon had five young grey plovers well and hearty, and
secured three or four more afterwards.

MOSQUITO VEIL.

LITTLE STINT'S NEST, EGGS AND YOUNG.

CHAPTER XIX.

Trip to the Golievski Islands — Shoal of white whales — Glaucous gull — Dunlins and
sanderlings — Black scoter — Dvoinik — Little stint — Curlew sandpiper — Snow-
bunting — Overhauling our plunder — The Company's manager — Discussions
concerning the stints — Probable line of migration followed by birds.

ON the 13th of July an opportunity presented itself of visit-
ing the Golievski Islands at the entrance of the lagoon.

CHAP. XIX.

GOLIEVSKI ISLANDS.

227

These islands are little more than sandbanks, and the
beacons erected upon them for the guidance of vessels
entering the river are washed away every spring by the ice.
To re-erect these beacons and to inspect others on various
promontories on the shores of the lagoon, the steamer makes
a trip every July. Capt. Engel asked us to accompany
him, and we gladly accepted the invitation.

Passing Stanavialachta and Cape Bolvanski, we sailed
almost due north to the bar, where the lead announced scarcely
thirteen feet of water. We then steered nearly east to within
three miles of the shore, whence we afterwards kept in a
north-easterly direction; a few miles after passing Cape
Constantinovka we altered our course to north, and made
Island No. 4 about midnight. Off Cape Constantinovka we
came upon a shoal of white whales or beluga, which played
like porpoises round the steamer.

We stayed a couple of hours on Island No. 4, erecting the
beacon upon it. The night was foggy at intervals, but the
midnight sun shone bright. The island is a flat desert of
sand, unrelieved by a blade of grass. It may be a couple
of square miles in extent in the summer time, and is not
much affected by the tide that rises only four or six inches.
We found a large flock of glaucous gulls upon it;* we
could only discover two nests. They were heaps of sand,

* The glaucous gull (Larus ylaxcus,
Linn.) breeds on the shores of the
Arctic Ocean of both hemispheres,
migrating southwards on the approach
of winter, in Europe as far south as the
Mediterranean, in Asia as far as Japan,

and in America as far as Long Island
on the Atlantic coast. It visits the
shores of Great Britain during autumn
and winter, but has not been known
to breed so far south.

228 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xix.

hollowed slightly at the apex and lined with some irregu-
larly disposed tufts of seaweed. The young in down were
running about on the flat sandbank. We secured half-a-
dozen and shot four old birds. The young were less spotted
than those of most gulls usually are : the old birds were
pure white, with delicate, dove-coloured mantles, paler than
those of our herring-gull. The legs and feet were pale
flesh-tinted pink ; the beak and the line round the eye were
straw-yellow. The point of the beak was horn-colour, with
the usual dark vermilion spot on the angle of the lower
mandible. The pupils of the eye were blue-black, and the
irides very pale straw-yellow. The interior of the mouth
was the colour of the feet. The birds to whom the two
nests belonged were easily shot ; they made repeated down-
ward darts upon us, like terns. The rest of the flock kept
well out of range, soon settling down at a point on the ex-
treme end of the island, and, on being fired at there, flew
right away. Among these glaucous gulls were two imma-
ture birds and one or two Siberian herring-gulls. After the
dispersion of the flock that had engaged all our attention, we
began to notice the presence of small parties of sandpipers
feeding about the island. They were very wild, running
about on the low, wet sandbanks, rising hardly a couple of
feet above high-tide level, and about the margins of the
little pools in the lower parts of the island. Among them
were some dunlins; we succeeded in shooting a couple of
these, and one or two sanderlings.* These birds were

* The sanderling (Calidris arenaria, I of Great Britain and Ireland during
Linn.) is a common bird on the coasts | winter, and still more so in spring

CHAP. XIX.

SANDERLING.

229

peculiarly interesting to us. We had scarcely hoped to come
across them. We saw no evidences, however, of their breed-
ing upon the island ; they seem to have settled upon it

and autumn, when great numbers pass
along our shores on their passage to
and from their breeding-grounds. They
usually arrive during August and leave
us again towards the end of May. This
interesting wader breeds so far north
that its eggs are almost unknown in
collections. When we visited the
Petchora, properly authenticated eggs
of this species were absolutely un-
known. Eggs, said to be those of the
sanderling, had been obtained in Iceland
and in Arctic America, but it was not
until 1876 that all doubt upon the
subject was removed. In the Appendix
to Nares' ' Voyage to the Polar Sea '
(vol. ii. p. 210) Captain Fielden, the
naturalist to the expedition, gives the
following account of the breeding of
the sanderling, which is illustrated by
an excellent chrome-lithograph of the
eggs of that bird. "I first observed
the sanderling in Grinnell Land on
June 5th, 1876, Hying in company
with knots and turnstones ; at this
date it was feeding like the other
waders on the buds of Saxifraga oppo-
sitifolia. This bird wa^> by no means
abundant along the coasts of Grinnell
Land ; but I observed several pairs in
the aggregate, and found a nest of this
species containing two eggs, in lat.
82° 33' N. on June 24th, 1876. This
nest, from which I killed the male
bird, was placed on a gravel ridge, at
an altitude of several hundred feet
above the sea ; and the eggs were

deposited in a slight depression in the
centre of a recumbent plant of willow,
the lining of the nest consisting of
a few withered leaves, and some of the
last year's catkins. August 8th, 1876,
along the shores of Robeson Channel,
I saw several parties of young ones,
three to four in number, following
their parents, and, led by the old birds,
searching most diligently for insects.
At this date they were in a very inte-
resting stage of plumage, being just
able to fly, but retaining some of the
down on their feathers." The eggs of
the sanderling, as figured by Captain
Fielding, are miniature eggs of the less
strongly marked varieties of the curlew,
and are of the same size as the eggs of
the lesser tern. This discovery of a
breeding-place of the sanderling at the
extreme northern limit of animal life
on the shores of the polar basin, a
little to the west of Cape Union, is one
of the most interesting additions to the
history of British birds which has
recently been made. There can be
little doubt that the distribution of
this bird during the breeding season
is circumpolar, since in winter the
sanderling is found on both coasts of
the American continent as far south as
Chili and Brazil. It is very common
in Africa in winter down to the Cape,
and in Asia it has been found during
the cold season, on the coasts of India
and China.

230 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xix.

merely to feed. The only trace of nests we found was that
of the two of the glaucous gull. The shores of the island
were devoid of all material for nest-building, except sand
and a very slight quantity of seaweed. A few whelks, some
broken mussels, and other bivalves lay sparingly scattered
about ; here and there a few pieces of drift-wood, and near
the south shore the stranded decaying body of a seal, pro-
bably the harp seal.

At two o'clock we returned on board, and after a couple of
hours' sleep, we woke to find ourselves lying at anchor in
a thick fog that completely hid Island No. 3 from us. The
sun, however, was shining brilliantly overhead. After an
early breakfast we watched the fog lifting, and gradually we
caught sight of the island, over which a flock of ten thou-
sand black ducks was whirling and circling. This island
we computed to be some eight or ten miles in length. It
appeared to be exactly the same sandy desert as Island
No. 4, but we were told that some persons who had visited
it declare that grass grows upon it. Unluckily for us, its
beacon had not been carried off, only laid upon its side by the
ice, so that in an hour's time it was repaired and set up on its
legs again, and all hands ordered back on board. Near it
lay another dead seal, apparently the common one, in a con-
dition described by Cocksure as having " beaucoup d'aroma."
A few herring and glaucous gulls were upon the island, and
we found two empty nests ; but what interested us most was
the presence of large parties of dunlins and small flocks of
sanderlings. Numbers of black ducks continually passed
like clouds overhead. The large flocks did not come near

CHAP. xix. BEACONS. 231

enough for identification, but we made out among smaller
ones the long-tailed duck and the black scoter, and were
inclined to think that the large flocks were composed of the
latter species.

At eight o'clock we had a more substantial breakfast than
that partaken of in the earlier hours ; then we went to lie
down on sofas in the cabin. All day we drifted down a sea
almost as smooth as a mirror ; not a breath of wind stirred
during the night or day. We had also left the mosquitoes
behind, and only saw one or two after leaving the delta of
the Petohora. The steamer returned to No. 4 Island as we
slept, to get into the right course and deposit a u carabas "
on the William Bank, and a long pole (with a besom on the
top and a stone at the foot) upon the Alexander Bank.

We commenced our next day at 4 P.M. It was a very
short one, but it proved a very eventful one. After a
refreshing wash and a promenade on deck for half an hour ,
we dined and smoked a pipe. By that time the boats were
ready, and we went on shore a couple of versts south of the
river Dvoinik, there to erect another beacon, which we were
afterwards told the Samoyedes had pulled down.

Harvie-Brown and I struck off at once for the tundra in the
direction of the Pytkoff Mountains (580 feet high), about
fifteen miles distant. The tundra was very flat, and we
soon came upon ground exactly similar in character to that
tenanted by the grey plovers near Alexievka. We had not
walked far when we heard the well-known cry, and there
rose four grey plovers. My companion soon after met with
another pair and lay down to watch them. We parted

232

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIX.

company here, and I heard later that feeling ill, the effects
probably of irregular meals and sleep, he soon after returned
to the ship, having met with nothing of interest, except the
grey plovers, and a few BufTon's and Kichardson's skuas,
and also picking up the feathers of a snowy owl.

After leaving him I went on for about a quarter of an
hour, then finding the tundra " flat, stale, and unprofitable,"
I turned sharp to the north, towards what I took to be a
large lake, but which in the maps is set down to be a bay of
the sea. En route I saw nothing but an occasional Lapland
bunting or red-throated pipit. Arrived at the water's edge,
however, I spent an interesting hour. A large flock of sand-
pipers were flying up and down the banks. They looked very
small and very red ; and, in order to watch them, I hid amongst
Fome dwarf willows, teeming with mosquitoes. I did not
heed their bites, for my hopes and doubts and fears made me
for the time mosquito-proof. Presently some birds swirled
past, and I gave them a charge of No. 8. Three fell — three
little stints* — the real Simon Pure at last. I now waited a

* The little stint (Tringa minuta,
Leisl.) was one of those few birds
which "we did not meet with at Ust-
Zylma on migration, and one whose
eggs we looked upon as one of the
great prizes which might possibly be
within our reach on this trip ; authentic
specimens being unknown in any collec-
tion ; the only examples known to have
been obtained having been procured by
IVIiddendorff on the Taimyr River in
Siberia in latitude 74°. This species
breeds only on the tundras beyond the

limit of forest growth, probably from
the North Cape in Norway to the
valley of the Yenesay. It passes the
shores of Great Britain in both seasons
on migration, but is much more nume-
rous in autumn than in spring. It
winters in North and South Africa and
India. In Eastern Siberia its place is
taken by a nearly allied species — Tringa
albescens (Temm.) — which differs in
summer in being much more chestnut
on the throat, and may be recognized
at all seasons by its longer tarsus.

CHAP. XIX.

CURLEW SANDPIPER.

233

few minutes, and soon heard their notes again. This time
a small flock passed me over the water, and I dropped a
couple into it. I endeavoured to wade in after them, but
the mud was too much for me ; a smart north wind was
blowing also, so I turned back and waited on the shore ;
there I spent the time examining every dunlin that came
within the range of my glass, in the hopes of discovering one
without the black belly. After a while I walked on, not
caring to shoot more, but desirous of finding some evidence
of the little stint's breeding haunts. At a short distance
before me rose sandhills sprinkled over with esparto-grass ;
towards these I now bent my steps. The intervening ground
was covered with thick, short, coarse grass, and was studded
with little pools of water. I had not gone far before I came
upon some sandpipers feeding on the edge of a small island
in the bay. There was no kind of cover near, so, approach-
ing as close as I dared, I fired. There must have been six
or seven birds ; all rose but one, who tried to follow the rest,
but was wounded, and he dropped into the water, fluttering
feebly on, till he reached another island. The mud on the
banks was so deep and sticky that it was with difficulty I again
got within range, and with a second shot laid him upon his
back. When I managed to reach him my pleasure was
great on picking him up to find a curlew sandpiper.* This

* The curlew sandpiper (Tringa
subarquata, Giild.) is a regular spring
and autumn migrant 011 the shores of
Great Britain and Ireland. It rarely
if ever remains the winter with us,
but passes through in September and

October in considerable numbers, and
again, but in much smaller flocks, in
May. It is not known that eggs of
this bird, common as it is, have ever
been taken. Even its breeding-grounds
have yet to be discovered. The ill-

234

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XIX.

was the single specimen of the species that we obtained on
our journey. I now hastened on to the sandhills. The mos-
quitoes had by this time forced me to wear my veil, but
when on reaching the hills I saw a number of small waders
running hither and hither, I threw it back ; still I could
detect nothing but ringed plovers. I shot one, to be certain
of my identification, and hoping also that the report would
rouse rarer game. A shore-lark in first plumage was the
only variety of bird that rose at the sound. I secured it.
Wandering on farther, I was still disappointed. Beds of
wild onion and large patches of purple vetch had replaced
the coarse grass. I returned on my footsteps to the edge of
the bay, and missed a shot at a swan ; a snowy owl also
flew past out of range. The curlew sandpipers had disap-

considered statement made by Dr.
Finsch that he had found the young
in down on the Yalmal peninsula was
afterwards contradicted by himself.
There can be little doubt that the
curlew sandpiper breeds in Arctic
Siberia, but the precise locality remains
a mystery. It occasionally winters on
the shores of the Mediterranean, and is
exceedingly common in South Africa,
from October to April. It is also found
at the same season of the year on the
coast of India, China, and the islands
of the Malay Archipelago. In America
it appears to be only an accidental
straggler to the west coast. It was
a great disappointment to us to obtain
no definite clue to its breeding haunts ;
but from the accounts we heard, con-
flicting and untrustworthy as these

often were, we gathered that marshy
plains and swamps of great extent lie
along the courses of the numerous
rivers and small streams which flow
from the Pytkoff Mountains to the sea
to the north-eastward of Dvoinik. Of
this fair land of promise we were only
permitted to obtain a very distant and
unsatisfactory view, as on the only
occasion when we might have seen it,
had the air been clear, from a height
upon the tundra to the north of the
inlet, a white mist lay along the dis-
tant hollows, completely concealing the
features of the landscape. The curlew-
sandpiper does not always follow the
coast-line in its migrations. Bogdanoff
records that it is seen on the Volga
and on the Kama both in spring and
autumn.

CHAP. xix. AN ELDORADO. 235

peared. The flock of little stints were still there, but I
left them to follow a snow-bunting, the first I had seen since
leaving Ust-Zylma. I shot it. Then, to my consternation,
I discovered through my glass that the last man had left
the beacon, and I must return ; a pair of black-throated
divers were sailing about the bay, one or two herring-gulls
were flying about, but my time was up. I was a good mile
from the ship, so, turning by the sandhills, I made my way
to the beacon, bagging a fine male grey plover as I went.
As soon as I got on board, we started for Alexievka.

My wonderful success at the last moment determined us
that by some means we would return to this land teeming
with rare birds. We marked, as we steamed along, that
the sandhills continued on the north side of the river
Dvoinik as far as Cape Constantino vka. It was probable
that the breeding-ground of the "little stints" might be
found on these coasts or on the mountains. Those I had
seen might be last year's birds, not breeding this year, but
haunting the neighbourhood of the older ones, as is the
case with the flocks of dunlins. It was tantalising to have
to hurry away from what seemed an Eldorado ; and as we
looked at the old washing-tub that usually carried us on our
trips to the tundra, and knew that for its life it could not
dare cross the Bolvanski Bucht, we felt inclined to parody
on Kichard III.'s cry, and exclaim aloud, " A boat ! a boat !
my kingdom for a boat ! "

Our young grey plovers in down, when we visited them,
we found thriving. There were five small birds, in excel-
lent condition.

236 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xix.

The five sanderlings that we had shot on the islands were
three males and two females. The testicles of the former
were small, the latter had eggs about the size of a pin's head.
Both males and females showed signs of moult ; they had
some bare places almost like sitting-spots, but no recent
ones.

The curlew sandpiper turned out to be a female, with very
small eggs, and showed no signs of having been breeding
this year.

The next day we were too wearied, after the excitement
and fatigues of the previous orue, to do more than turn out
for a few minutes to shoot a couple of Temminck's stints.
We wished to compare them with the little stints secured
the day before. Side by side the birds are perfectly distinct.
The little stint is a shade the smaller, but the measurements
are the same, as its bill is a trifle the longer. There is not
much difference in the extent of wing, the measurements
being respectively 11-8 and 11*9 inches. The length of wing
from the carpal joint is : —

Temminck's stint . . 4'05 in.

Little stint 3'6 in.

A more important measurement may be the length of the
tarsus. The smaller bird has decidedly the longer tarsus,
*85 against "75 inch. The colours of the legs and feet are
very different. The little stint's are almost black ; those of
the Temminck's stint brown, or perhaps grey. The bill of
the little stint is also much darker than that of the other
species. The easiest distinction lies in the colour of the
back and wings. In this respect the little stint is a small

CHAP. xix. TEMMINCK'S STINT. 237

dunlin, and the Temminck's stint a small Terek or common
sandpiper. The little stint is dark brown, almost black,
each feather edged with pale chestnut, or rich umber-brown.
The other species is grey, with something like a touch of
green, and the feathers have pale tips, rich enough sometimes
to be called a grey yellow-ochre ; those on the bastard wing
appoach a grey umber-brown. The colour of the shaft of
the first primary, and the comparative distinctness of the
white edges of the secondaries, supposed in the Temminck's
stint to form a second white bar in flight, appear exactly the
same in both species.

The five little stints in our possession proved to be all
males. Temminck's stints were very common at Alexievka.
They were breeding abundantly : sometimes we found them
in single pairs ; sometimes almost in colonies ; but we had
never met with flocks of these birds since leaving the neigh-
bourhood of Habariki. Those that we had come upon after-
wards had never failed to show us by their ways that we were
intruding upon their breeding quarters. When Harvie-Brown
visited Archangel, in 1872, he found Temminck's stints breed-
ing on one of the islands of the delta of the Dvina. This was
probably not far from the southern limit of their migration.
He also continually observed this species in other localities-,
congregating in small flocks together, and evidently not
breeding. These might have been the birds of the preceding
year. If, as it is pretty well established, few sandpipers
breed until the second year, and the young birds flock,
during their first summer, somewhere near the southern
limit of the breeding- stations, it might also be augured that

238 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xix.

the little stints I had seen were probably breeding at no
great distance from the spot I had visited the previous day.
The thought of the probable vicinity of the nests, the dis-
covery of which had been one of the strong motives of our
journey, excited us so much that we did not go to bed, but
spent the night plotting and planning the possibilities of
getting to Dvoinik again. There were difficulties in the
way. Unluckily for us, the Company's manager was a very
impracticable man. It was his first year in office ; he was
young, inexperienced, and comparatively uneducated. For
the nonce, he was absolute monarch of Alexievka, and the
absoluteness of his power was "too many" for him. A
German (from Kevel), he had yet so much of the Kussian in
him, that when scratched the Tartar would out. He was
very unpopular, and one glimpse behind the scenes revealed
to us rebellion " looming in the distance." There were
allowances to be made for the man. No gentlemen would
come to such a place as Alexievka, or face the existing
muddle, for the sake of the miserable pay " la pauvre com-
pagnie," as Cocksure calls it, gives. The Provalychik had a
plentiful crop of cares under his crown. So far as we could
see, he was plotting and being plotted against. He was not
backed up by the Bureau at St. Petersburg. His domestic
affairs looked ugly; and amongst his subordinates he had
scarcely one reliable man he could trust. The whole situ-
ation was a specimen of what the Germans call " Eussische
Wirthschaft." We knew the man could render us an in-
valuable service without exposing the Company to the
slightest loss, but as yet we had not been able to make him

CHAP. xix. LINES OF MIGRATION. 239

see with our eyes. We longed for the arrival of Sideroff,
fearing, however, he would come too late. Meanwhile we
tried to work the oracle, and had not yet given up the task
in despair.

Whether the birds that I had seen in flocks on the tundra
were those of the year before, or not, continued a matter of
discussion between my companion and myself. He con-
sidered that maritime birds that feed principally when the
tide falls, have consequently a periodical dining-hour, and
a special dining-room, and therefore get into the habit of
flocking together at dinner-time. I remained still of the
opinion that birds of the same species were breeding not far
off, probably on the coast between the Bolvanski Bucht and
Varandai ; or it might be on the Pytkoff Mountains. We
had also many debates concerning the probable line of
migration followed by " les rares oiseaux" as we called the
grey plover, the little stint, the curlew sandpiper, and the
sanderling ; and in this we began to question the usually
received theory, that these birds migrate up the Baltic and
along the coast of Norway to their breeding haunts. My
own notion had long been that birds migrate against the
prevailing winds; that they migrate to their breeding-
ground in a narrow stream, returning from them in a
broad one. If these birds therefore winter on the shores
of the Mediterranean, they probably leave by way of
the Black Sea, cross by the Sea of Azov to the Volga,
near Sarepta, follow the Yolga to Kazan, thence along
the Kama to Perm; then over the low hills of the Ural
to the Obb, and so on to the Arctic Ocean. Some breed

240 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xix.

near the mouth of the Obb, others on the eastern or
the western coast. The stragglers who wander off as far
as Archangel and the North Cape, may be barren birds,
with nothing else to do.

After starting this hypothesis, we bethought ourselves
that we had with us a list of the birds of Kasan, in a
book lent to us by M. Znaminski. These chapters are
headed "Materials for making a Biography of the Birds
of the Volga," and the work itself is entitled, ' Descrip-
tive Catalogues of the High School of the Imperial
University at Kasan/ edited by MM. Kovalevski, Leva-
kovski, Golovinski, and Bogdanoff; published at Kasan in
1871. From this book, Cocksure drew for us the following
information : —

" Little and TemmincJcs stints are seen in flocks during
the first fortnight in May on the Volga, from Simbirsk to
Kasan, and on the Kama as far as Uffa. They are not seen
during the summer, but are found again at Simbirsk in the
middle of August.

" Curlew sandpipers are seen in Kasan in spring and
autumn only, both on the Volga and Kama.

" Sanderlings are seen in autumn at Kasan, and have been
seen in spring on the Sarpa.

" Grey plovers are seen in small flocks in May and
September, near Kasan, but are not to be met with every
year.

" Yellow-headed wagtails arrive at Kasan, with the com-
mon species (viz. middle of April): a few pairs are seen
until the beginning of June."

CHAP. XIX.

MIGRATION.

241

These extracts prove that part of the migration of these
species takes place across country ; but probably the main
stream follows the coast, especially in autumn, as I was
myself an eye-witness, the year after my return from the
Petchora, on the island of Heligoland.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

R

THE LIGHTHOUSE AT

HELIGOLAND ON
A MIGRATION NIGHT.

CHAPTER XX.

Hybernation of birds — Migration of birds — Reed-warblers — Origin of migration —
Transvaal warblers — The Mammoth age — Insect life — Lines of migration —
Heligoland — Its ornithologists — Variety of birds — Wind and weather — The
throstle-bushes — Migration by sight — Order of migration — Stray migrants —
The yellow-browed warbler — Migration on Heligoland — Skylarks — Migratory
instincts — Other facts of migration.

IT is very difficult to reali-e the fact that not longer ago
than towards the close of the last century the belief in the
hibernation of swallows was held by many ornithologists.
That certain species of mammals spend the winter in a
torpid state is proved beyond all possibility of doubt; but

CHAP. xx. HYBERNATION. 243

there is no evidence of the hibernation of any species of
birds. Never was theory founded on more flimsy substratum
of supposed facts, or supported by weaker logical argument.
Swallows made their appearance in spring, no one knew how
or whence. During the summer they were remarkable for
being almost constantly on the wing, but late in the au-
tumn a noticeable change took place in their habits. They
were observed more and more to congregate in large flocks,
and towards evening to perch in numbers on houses, and
frequently in trees. Finally they collected in thousands
on the reeds and willows on the banks of the Thames, and
disappeared during the night. In the morning not a swal-
low was to be seen, and ornithologists came to the startling
conclusion that they had plunged into the dark waters of
the river, and buried themselves in the mud at its bottom,
to reappear the following spring, refreshed by their winter's
sleep. And this theory was gravely accepted as one among
many other unfathomable secrets of Nature ! After a time
it was, however, discovered that the disappearance of many
of the summer resident birds from their breeding-grounds
in this country was the signal for their appearance in some
parts of Southern Europe or Northern Africa, and the
theory of migration was accepted as resting upon a basis
of indisputable fact when birds were seen in the act of mi-
grating. At certain stations, such as Gibraltar and Malta,
and notably on the island of Heligoland (all, curiously
enough, under British rule), birds were seen passing over, not
in small flocks only, but by thousands and tens of thousands,
so that no possible doubt could remain as to the great fact

244 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

of migration. The periodical disappearance of the swallow
remained, however, almost as great a mystery as before.
The impulse of migration was called an instinct ; but did
not the less remain an unfathomable secret of Nature, and
the only cause that could be assigned for it was that it must
have been originally implanted in certain species at their
creation and denied to others.

The discoveries of Darwin and Wallace have placed the
facts of migration in an entirely new light, and added a
new interest to a subject which has always been one of the
most fascinating departments of ornithology. The origin
of the habit of migration is still involved in much mystery.
It is probably a fact in the history of birds of comparatively
modern date. It is not confined to any one geographical
region, nor to any one family of birds, nor can we assume that
it will be present or absent in every species of the same genus.
The birds of the Nearctic region are as migratory as those
of the Palsearctic. Many birds visit South America and
Australia only during the breeding-season. If we include
as birds of the tropical regions those species which visit
them after having bred in the cooler regions, they will also
contain a considerable proportion of migrants, even though
no bird migrates there to breed. We may lay it down as
a law, to which there is probably no exception, that every
bird breeds in the coldest regions of its migrations. No bird
migrates to the tropics to breed because there is no hotter
region for it to migrate from. The well-authenticated
stories of birds breeding a second time in the place of their
winter migration probably have the same scientific value as

CHAP. xx. REED-WARBLERS. 245

the stories of swallows having been found hybernating in
caves and hollow trees, or of toads having been found in the
recesses of otherwise solid rocks.

Many birds, such as the robin, the blackbird, the song-
thrush, &c., which are resident iu England, are migratory
in Germany. There is every probability that it is only
within comparatively recent times that these birds have
ceased to migrate in England, and we may fairly conjec-
ture that should the English climate remain long enough
favourable to the winter residence of these birds, they
will develop into local races, which will eventually have
rounder and shorter wings than their continental allies.

In some genera of birds it is comparatively easy to
determine the geographical range from an examination of
the shape of the wing. In the genus Acrocephalus, or
reed-warblers, for example, A. turdoides has a very pointed
wing. Its migrations extend from South Sweden to the
Transvaal. A. orientalis is scarcely distinguishable except
in having a slightly less pointed wing. Its migrations
extend from Japan to Borneo. A. stentorius has a decidedly
more rounded wing, and the limits of its migrations are from
Turkestan to India ; whilst A. syrinx has the roundest wing
of all, and appears to have become a resident in the island
of Ponape. In the smaller species of the genus the fact is
equally striking. The sharp-winged A. schoenoldenus ranges
from the Arctic Circle to South Africa, whilst the more
rounded-winged A. dumetorum and A. Issticatus have very
limited ranges.

There is a considerable difference of opinion as to the

246 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

origin of migration, some ornithologists holding that the
original home of a species was its winter quarters ; others
supposing that before the instinct of migration was formed
the species was a resident in the district where it now breeds.
Both views have their difficulties ; but the preponderance of
evidence seems to me to be largely on the side of the latter
theory. In turning over a box of Transvaal skins, shot
during the breeding season between September and March,
it seems impossible to come to any other conclusion.
Throwing aside the brilliant birds of the district, we shall
find, especially if the box comes from Potchefstrom, a
variety of reed - warblers and allied birds, which speak of
swamps abounding with insects, where birds of this kind
delight to breed and find unlimited food. As a matter of
fact most of these birds do breed there, and, because the
winter is so mild, remain there all the year round. But
mixed up with these African types we shall find a fair
sprinkling of our own reed-warblers, who have gone down
there to avoid our cold winters. These birds are not breed-
ing ; they have migrated to the Transvaal to enjoy the
mosquitoes of the Potchefstrom swamps, and when the
Potchefstrom birds have finished breeding and begin their
six months' rest from family cares, they will some of them
migrate to the Arctic regions of North Europe to breed
amongst the mosquitoes which swarm on the river -banks
on the outskirts of the tundra. We can scarcely conceive
it possible that these species were ever resident birds in the
Transvaal. It seems much more rational to conclude that
they were once resident birds in the subarctic regions of

CHAP. xx. THE MAMMOTH AGE. 247

Europe, and now by the change in the winter temperature
of their original home have come to South Africa as mi-
grants, apparently out of season in regard to their breeding
habits, to mix amongst birds, many of whom are closely
allied to, if not congeneric with, themselves. The cause of
migration is want of food, not want of warmtli. The feathers
of a Siberian jay or a Lapp tit are proof against any cold.

Admitting that the various species of birds that breed in
countless thousands in the Arctic regions were once residents
there in the days when the climate was much warmer than
it is now, we still find some difficulties to explain. In the
first place, the Mammoth age does not appear to have been
so very much warmer than the present climate. It is said
that the remains of the foliage of conifers, such as now exist
in Siberia, have been found in the stomachs of frozen mam-
moths. In the second place, the question may be fairly
asked : How about the three months' night ? Would that
be no bar to the wintering of so many birds in the Arctic
regions? But are we sure that there was three months'
night ? May it not be possible that the obliquity of the
earth's axis to its orbit was much less in those ages, and that
this was one cause of the comparative mildness of the
winters, whilst the summers were for the same reason cool
enough for the growth of conifers? An increase in the
obliquity of the earth's axis would possibly account for the
glacial period which destroyed the mammoths and compelled
the birds to migrate.

It is alleged that many birds leave their winter quarters
because in southern climates the heat dries up everything,

248 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

and lessens the production of insect-life. Many of our
European birds winter on both shores of the Mediterranean.
In wandering through the valleys of Asia Minor, or the
mountain-gorges of the Parnassus, or on the islands in the
lagoon of Missolonghi, in May and June, I noticed no
absence of insect-life. On the contrary, insect-life appeared
to be superabundant. Vegetable-life appeared to be threa-
tened by innumerable grasshoppers. One of the prominent
features of the district was the countless thousands of
beetles which swarmed on every plant, and, if we may judge
from the number and size of their webs, the countries I have
named must be a perfect paradise for spiders. That these
districts are suitable for the maintenance of insectivorous
birds during Bummer is proved by the fact that, soon after
the Phylloscopi, which have wintered there, have left, their
place is filled with birds belonging to the allied genus
Hypolais, so that the olive-trees are well supplied with insect-
eating birds both winter and summer. One species of swal-
low winters in Greece, one is found there all the year round,
and three other species are summer migrants to that country.
In some cases no doubt the weaker birds are turned out by
the stronger. Swallows arrive in Diisseldorf early in April.
For some weeks they circle over the town, like a swarm of
bees. Early in May the swifts arrive, and soon become as
abundant as the swallows were, whilst the latter birds are
rarely seen during the summer.

Too much has probably been made of the great lines of
migration, the highways which lead from the summer to the
winter quarters. It has been asserted that there is a con-

CHAP. xx. HELIGOLAND. 249

nection between these routes and the position of submerged
continents across which the birds migrated in past ages.
Probably there is some such connection, but in all proba-
bility an accidental one. To prove the case it would be
necessary to show that migratory birds chose a longer route
across a shallow sea in preference to a shorter route across a
deep sea. It would be necessary also to prove that the
habit of migration is older than the subsidence of the
submerged land.

I venture to think that the modus operandi of migration
has been to a large extent misunderstood. Few birds
migrate by day. By far the greater number of species
migrate by night. The number of places where nocturnal
migrations can be systematically observed is very small.
Two circumstances are requisite to make such observations
successful. First, a sufficiently large population sufficiently
interested in the event to permit no nocturnal migration to
pass undiscovered. Second, a sufficiently intelligent na-
turalist to record the sum of many years' observation. Pro-
bably in no place in the world are these desiderata so exactly
fulfilled as upon the island of Heligoland. Soon after my
return from the valley of the Petchora, Mr. Gatke, the cele-
brated ornithologist and artist, who has resided for so many
years on Heligoland, invited me to visit the island, to renew
the acquaintance of the grey plover, the little stint, the
blue-throat, the shore-lark, the little bunting, and others of
my Petchora friends, and to see something of the wonderful
stream of migration which sets in every autumn from the
Arctic regions to the sunny South, and flows abundantly past

250 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

the island. Heligoland is a very small place, probably not
much more than a hundred acres in extent. It is an isolated
triangular rock of red sandstone, with perpendicular cliffs
two or three hundred feet in height, dropping into a sea so
shallow, that at low water you can scramble round the island
at the foot of the cliffs. Most of the surface of this rock is
covered with rich soil and grass. About a mile from the
island is a sandbank, the highest portion covered over with
esparto grass, and the lower portions covered by the sea at
high tide, reducing the island from perhaps fifty acres to
twenty-five. The resident birds on Heligoland and Sandy
Island probably do not exceed a dozen species; but in spring
and autumn the number of birds that use these islands as a
resting-place during migration is so large, that as many as
15,000 larks have been known to have been caught there in
one night, and the number of species of birds obtained on
these two small plots of land equals, if it does not exceed,
that of any country of Europe. There are several species of
Siberian and American birds which have never been ob-
tained in any part of Europe except upon the island of
Heligoland. The list of Heligoland birds is so varied, that
many ornithologists have doubted its accuracy. No one can
visit the island, however, without being convinced of the
lona fides of all concerned. The authenticity of the
Heligoland skins is beyond all possible question. During the
time I spent on the island, from the 23rd of September
to the 18th of October, I either shot or saw in the flesh such
a variety of birds that I could almost agree with my friend
Mr. Gatke when he stated that he would willingly exchange

CHAP. xx. RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. 251

his collection of rare birds shot in Heligoland for those
which had passed over the island without being obtained.
It is probable, however, that the latter bear a much smaller
proportion to the former in Heligoland than in any other
place. The fact is that this little island is the only part of
the world of which the ornithology has been properly worked.
Every little boy on the island is a born and bred orni-
thologist. Every unfortunate bird which visits the island
has to rim the gauntlet of about forty guns, to say nothing
of scores of blowpipes and catapults. The flight and note of
every bird is familiar to every islander. Each bird has its
own local name in the Heligoland language. A new bird is
instantly detected. The fisherman steers with a gun by his
side ; the peasant digs his potatoes with a gun on the turf,
and a heap of birds on his coat. On an island where there
are no cows, and sheep are kept for their milk only, meat is
of course very dear, especially as it has to be brought by
steamer from Hamburg, one of the dearest cattle-markets
on the continent of Europe. Birds therefore naturally form
an important article of diet to the Heligolanders. Every
bird which appears is whistled within range with marvellous
skill. The common birds are eaten, the rare ones sold to
the bird-stuffer, and the new ones taken to Gatke. Many
of the Heligolanders are clever shots. Long before sunrise
the island is bristling with guns ; and after dark the netters
are busy at their throstle-bushes; whilst at midnight the
birds commit suicide against the lighthouse. When we
consider that this has been going on for a quarter of a
century, and that the results have been carefully chronicled

252 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

for that length of time, the wonder is not that so many
species of birds have occurred on Heligoland, but that so
many have hitherto escaped detection. This must be
accounted for on the theory that, after all, the appearance
of birds on Heligoland is only accidental. Comparatively
little migration is observed by the casual visitor who frequents
the Eestaurant to enjoy the oysters and the lobsters, or rows
across to Sandy Island to bathe on the shore, and take a
constitutional on the " dunes." Now and then a flock of
waders may be detected hurrying past ; flocks of pipits occa-
sionally land on the island, feed for an hour or two, and then
pass on ; and sometimes a scattered and straggling stream, of
hooded crows, of heavy and laborious flight, will continue all
day long. But by far the most important migration will be
found to have taken place " while men slept." Every flock
which passes over probably drops a few tired or hungry
birds, and a walk through the potato-fields in the morning
after a migration night, sometimes turns up the most curious
and interesting variety of species which have sought the
only cover on the island to feed, or rest, or hide. Perhaps
the first bird you flush is a skylark ; the report of your gun
starts a golden plover, or a jack snipe ; then you observe
some small birds skulking in the potatoes, and you presently
secure a little bunting, an aquatic warbler, and a shore-lark.
Your next shot may be a corncrake, followed by a ring ousel
or a Kichard's pipit. Every night, however, is not a migra-
tion night. Sometimes for a week together you may dili-
gently tramp the potatoes without finding a bird. Migra-
tion is a question of wind and weather. Aeuckens, the

CHAP. xx. THROSTLE-BUSHES. 253

bird-stuffer on Heligoland, told me that birds migrate north-
east in spring, and south-west in autumn. Gatke, on the
other hand, maintains that the directions are due east and
west. Both agree that birds dislike an absolutely favour-
able or absolutely contrary wind. The former ruffles their
feathers and chills them ; the latter, if too strong, impedes
their progress. They prefer a side wind, and probably
alter their course slightly to accommodate themselves to
it. It is even said that they will sometimes tack. Weather
is perhaps as important as wind. Under ordinary circum-
stances a bird does not require to rest on Heligoland, and the
arrivals for the most part are said not to be from any point
of the compass, but perpendicularly from the sky. The
islanders describe with great gusto the -sudden arrival of
thrushes in this manner. There are scarcely any trees on
the island, so the peasants make artificial bushes with a net
on one side into which the poor thrushes are driven with
sticks and lanterns as soon as they alight. Some hundreds
are thus frequently caught in one night. By long expe-
rience the Heligolanders know when to expect an arrival of
birds. Aeuckens related to me how they would watch on
favourable nights by the throstle-bushes, when on a sudden,
without a moment's warning, a rush and whirl of wings
would be heard, and the throstle-bush would swarm with
thrushes, not dropped, but apparently shot like an arrow
from a bow, perpendicularly down from the invisible heights
of mid air. It is supposed that migration takes place for the
most part at a high elevation, beyond the range of our
vision ; that the birds migrate by sight, and not, as has been

254 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

assumed, by blind instinct ; that they are guided by pro-
minent landmarks with which they have gradually become
familiar ; and that many birds which are not gregarious at
any other time of the year become so during the periods of
migration, in order to avail themselves of the experience of
the veteran travellers of their own or of other species. The
desire to migrate is a hereditary instinct originally formed
and continually kept up by the necessity to do so in order
to maintain a struggle for existence against the changes of
temperature, but the direction in which to migrate must be
learned afresh by each individual. The theory that migra-
tion ordinarily takes place at high elevations is supported by
the fact that it is only in dark or cloudy weather that
migration on a large scale is observed. It is supposed
that the landmarks being obscured by clouds, the birds
are obliged to descend to see their way, for it is observed
that as soon as the clouds begin to break, the migration
apparently comes to an end. On dark nights the stream
of migration suddenly stops when the moon rises. Each
bird has its time of migration. Weather has, apparently,
nothing to do with this date. Good weather does not
seem to hasten the birds to their breeding haunts, nor
bad weather retard their starting. If the suitable con-
junction of circumstances occur during the season of a
certain bird's migration, that bird visits the island. If
the season goes by without such conjunction, the bird
does not visit the island. The period of its migration is
over. The migration of this species has taken place at
high altitudes, it may be, or by other routes ; and it is in

CHAP. xx. ORDER OF MARCH. 255

vain to look for it until the next season of migration comes
round, when, given the necessary wind and weather, the
appearance of the bird may confidently be expected.

The period of migration of each species lasts about a
month. In spring, during the first week, the flocks consist
principally of adult males ; during the second week, they
principally consist of adult females; in the third week,
follow the birds of the year ; whilst finally, during the last
week, arrive the cripples — birds which have lost their
toes, birds with half a tail, birds with one mandible
abnormally long, or birds with some other defect. In
autumn the order of migration is somewhat different-
For weeks before the regular period of migration is due
stragglers in various stages of plumage arrive, loaf about
in a desultory manner for a few days, and then disappear.
Some of these birds are in summer plumage, some of
them in their winter dress, whilst others are in a tran-
sition stage, moulting as they migrate. These avant-
courriers are supposed to consist of barren birds, odd birds
who have been unable to find a mate, or birds whose nests
have been destroyed too late in the season to allow of a
second nest to be made. Having nothing else to do, the
hereditary instinct to migrate not being checked by the
parental instinct, they yield to its first impulses, and drift
southwards before the general body of their species. When
the period of migration sets in in earnest, astounding as
the fact is, it is nevertheless true that the birds of the
year are the first to migrate, birds which of course have
never migrated before. This circumstance, which all the

256 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

Heligolanders with whom I conversed agreed in corrobo-
rating, may to a large extent account for the fact that the
rare stragglers recorded as visiting Heligoland and other
countries are for the most part birds of the year on
their first autumn migration. It is not to be wondered
at that on their first journey they should frequently stray
from the direct course. Probably the mortality amongst
birds of the year is very great, especially amongst those
who take the wrong road on their first migration. The
yellow- browed warbler (Phylloscopus superciliosus, Gmel.)
breeds in immense numbers on the Arctic Circle in Siberia.
The main line of migration of this as well as of several
other species of birds breeding in the same district is east-
wards, passing through North China and conducting them
to South China, Burmah, and the eastern portion of India,
where they winter in abundance. Several birds, some nearly
allied, and one congeneric, migrate west instead of east
from the same breeding-grounds, and with these a few yellow-
browed warblers appear annually to mix and find their way
to Europe, passing Heligoland in small numbers nearly every
autumn. Probably most of these wanderers perish during
the winter, as they have been observed in spring on Heli-
goland only once every few years. This charming little
bird has once been recorded from the British Islands. I
saw one or two during my short stay on Heligoland, and
was fortunate enough to shoot one. For nearly a week,
whilst I was visiting this interesting locality, the weather
was unfavourable. There were scarcely half-a-dozen birds
on the island. I used to take a constitutional with my gun

CHAP. xx. SHORE-LARKS. 257

twice or thrice a day, spending most of the rest of the time
in Mr. Gatke's studio, chatting about his birds, visiting
regularly Aeuckens, the bird-stuffer; to inquire if anyone
else had had better luck. On the llth of October I shot
three shore-larks. Aeuckens told me that the appearance of
this Arctic species was a very good sign, that he had often
noticed that a few birds always preceded the favourable weather,
and that we might soon expect a change and plenty of birds.
The next day the west winds which had prevailed for a week
slackened a little. In the afternoon it was a calm, with a ris-
ing barometer ; in the evening a breeze was already springing
up from the south-east. I called upon Gatke, who advised
me to go to bed, and be up before sunrise in the morning,
as in all probability I should find the island swarming with
birds. Accordingly I turned in soon after ten. At half-
past twelve I was awoke with the news that the migration
had already begun. Hastily dressing myself, I at once made
for the lighthouse. The night was almost pitch dark, but
the town was all astir. In every street men with large
lanterns and a sort of angler's landing-net were making for
the lighthouse. As I crossed the potato-fields birds were
continually getting up at my feet. Arrived at the light-
house, an intensely interesting sight presented itself. The
whole of the zone of light within range of the mirrors
was alive with birds coming and going. Nothing else was
visible in the darkness of the night but the lantern of the
lighthouse vignetted in a drifting sea of birds. From the
darkness in the east, clouds of birds were continually emerg-
ing in an uninterrupted stream ; a few swerved from their

8

258 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

course, fluttered for a moment as if dazzled by the light,
and then gradually vanished with the rest in the western
gloom. Occasionally a bird wheeled round the lighthouse
and then passed on, and occasionally one fluttered against
the glass like a moth against a lamp, tried to perch on the
wire netting and was caught by the lighthouse man. I
should be afraid to hazard a guess as to the hundreds of
thousands that must have passed in a couple of hours ; but
the stray birds which the lighthouse man succeeded in
securing amounted to nearly 300. The scene from the
balcony of the lighthouse was equally interesting ; in every
direction birds were flying like a swarm of bees, and every
few seconds one flew against the glass. All the birds seemed
to be flying up wind, and it was only on the lee side of the
light that any birds were caught. They were nearly all
skylarks. In the heap captured was one redstart and one
reed-bunting. The air was filled with the warbling cry of
the larks ; now and then a thrush was heard ; and once a
heron screamed as it passed by. The night was starless
and the town was invisible ; but the island looked like the
outskirts of a gas-lighted city, being sprinkled over with
brilliant lanterns. Many of the larks alighted on the
ground to rest, and allowed the Heligolanders to pass their
nets over them. About three o'clock A.M. a heavy thunder-
storm came on, with deluges of rain ; a few breaks in the
clouds revealed the stars; and the migration came to an
end or continued above the range of our vision.

The conclusion I came to after my Heligoland experi-
ence was that the desire to migrate was an hereditary

CHAP. XX.

HELIGOLAND.

259

impulse, to which the descendants of migratory birds
were subject in spring and autumn, which has during
the lapse of ages acquired a force almost, if not quite,
as irresistible as the instinct to breed in spring. On the
other hand, the direction in which to migrate appecars to be
absolutely unknown to the young birds in their first autumn,

VIEW OF HELIGOLAND.

and has to be learnt by experience. The idea that the
knowledge of where to migrate is a mysterious gift of Nature,
the miraculous quality of which is attempted to be con-
cealed under the semi-scientific term of instinct, appears
to be without any foundation in fact. It appears that each
individual bird has to find out its proper winter quarters for

260 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xx.

itself, and learn the way thither as best it may. That birds
have keen organs of sight is a fact well known to all who
have watched them obtaining their food or eluding their
enemies. That they must have wonderful memories for
place is shown by the distance they roam from their nests,
and the concealed spots in which they seem to have no diffi-
culty in finding them again. Amongst true migratory
birds, that is amongst birds which have a winter as well as a
summer home, as distinguished from gipsy migrants who per-
petually loaf about on the outskirts of the frost during
winter, continually changing their latitude with the tem-
perature, it appears to be a general rule that the farther
north a species goes to breed the farther south it goes to
winter. It is not known if this applies to individuals as well
as to species. The various times of arrival of many species
of birds in most latitudes of Europe are well known and care-
fully recorded, but of the dates of departure from the various
latitudes of Africa where they winter we know little or
nothing, otherwise this question might easily be settled. It
is obviously much easier to record the date of arrival of a
bird than of its departure. In the one case a single entry is
sufficient; in the other, memoranda may have to be daily
recorded for weeks. At Valkenswaad, in Holland, I noticed
that the earliest migrants were those with the widest range.
Birds whose breeding-range extended to or beyond Britain
were the earliest to breed, whilst those whose eggs I was
most anxious to obtain, those whose breeding-range did
not extend to our islands, were very late in arriving. It
seems to be a curious fact that, as a general rule, though

CHAP. xx. FACTS OF MIGRATION. 261

subject, no doubt, to many exceptions, the birds who have
come from the longest distance arrive the earliest. The facts
of migration are, however, so many, and the theories which
they suggest are so various, that we must bring this rambling,
if not irrelevant, chapter to an end, and return to the narra-
tive of our doings in the valley of the Petchora.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

DOING ROBINSON CRUSOE AT DVOINIK.

CHAPTEK XXI.

Trip to Kuya — The prahms — Travelling in a rosposki — The birds we saw — Arrival
of the Triad at Alexievka — We win over the manager — The [no — Doing Robin-
son Crusoe in a wrecked ship— Nest of the long-tailed duck — Our first little
stint's nest — The tundra — Sunset and sunrise — Little stint's eggs — The tundra
near Bolvanski Bucht — Phalaropes — Interior of the tundra — Change of plumage
in phalaropes — An early morning start — Confusion of time — The snowy owl —
Two more nests of little stint — A march of geese on the tundra — An old grave.

A DAY or two after our return from the G-olievski islands, a
chance suddenly turned up of making a trip up stream to
Kuya. The rafts, which ought by this time to have reached
Alexievka, had not arrived, and ill-natured rumours of their
having run aground were brought down by some fishermen.
The manager of the company had also run out of various

CHAP. xxi. KUYA. 263

articles de luxe, which his soul lasted after ; so the steamer
was ordered to Kuya, and we gladly accepted berths in her.
On the way we met one of the rafts coming down from
Kuya. We drove on to Mekitza to visit the prahms ; queer-
looking vessels, something like canal boats, carrying a
gigantic mast in the centre, and an arched roof above.
They come down every summer from Cherdin, near Perm.
Each vessel is a shop, where miscellaneous merchandise is
sold or bartered, and the owners are sometimes very wealthy
men. The goods fetch high prices on board. We paid
elevenpence for sugar per pound, and six shillings for tea.
The merchant from whom we bought our provisions was
reputed to be worth a million sterling. Nor was it extra-
ordinary, considering the amount of traffic he managed to
secure. He had come down to Mekitza with three prahms,
had cleared the cargo of two, and sold the vessels ; very few
goods now remained in the one in which he intended to
make his journey homeward. In the villages the prices
were much lower than those asked on the prahins. Thus
we paid only l%d. per Ib. for excellent fresh beef.

At Kuya several timber-rafts passed us, proceeding to
Alexievka ; these we waylaid. They were carrying a batch
of letters for us, up to June 7th. Having secured this
welcome trophy, we set our faces towards our head-quarters.

The five versts between Kuya to Mekitza and back we
travelled in a " rosposki," a machine composed of four wheels,
about two feet in diameter, the axle-trees of which are
connected by three parallel poles, upon which we sat. This
vehicle is, without exception, the most uncomfortable carriage

264 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

it has ever been my ill-luck to travel in. There is no
support for the back, nothing to hold on by the sides ; only
three bare poles to sit on, and not height enough from the
ground to swing one's legs about in peace. On the way we
saw sand-martins, hooded crows, arctic terns, common gulls,
ringed plover, and Temminck's stints. We got young in
down of the ringed plover and arctic tern, and shot a long-
tailed duck with her brood of ducklings. At Kuya we saw
both the common and the tree sparrow.

The morning had been intensely hot ; in the afternoon
the wind rose, veered round to the north, and the night was
stormy and cold. The next day the chill continued, and for
the time being the plague of mosquitoes was stayed. It was
a pleasant surprise, on reaching Alexievka, to find anchored
in the river an English schooner, the Triad, Captain Taylor.
She had come over from Iceland, where she had carried
coal, and was now chartered for larch to Cronstadt. We
at once planned to secure berths in her to carry us to
Copenhagen, which she intended sailing for in ten days.
She was likely to make Elsinore in a month.

The cold weather continued the next day. We spent two
hours at Wassilkova, but saw little of interest. The red-
throated pipits were in the moult, and not worth shooting.
We brought home some of their young, also those of the
yellow-headed wagtail and dunlins, and a pintail duck and its
half-grown ducklings. The next day my companion secured
another specimen of our new pipit, which we had been
, looking for in the neighbourhood. The day was memorable
for having brought successfully to a conclusion our negotia-

CHAP. xxi. THE "INO" AND "TRIAD." 265

tions with Captain Arendt, the manager of the Company.
A watch, a revolver, a musical box, and a ten-pound note
had brought him round, and on the morrow the steamer was
to be placed at our disposal. We were in high spirits,
shouting, " Hurrah ! for Dvoinik and the Little Stint !" The
next morning we were fairly off by ten A.M. It was cold
and numbing, with a light breeze blowing from the north-
west. As we neared the bar, we sighted a brig under full
sail. We hoisted a rendez-vous flag, and went on board.
Though flying Danish colours, we found she was an English
vessel — the Ino, from Newhaven. The captain told us he
had been some days trying to get into the Petchora, but
he was unable to reach it by steering between islands Nos. 3
and 4, owing to the ice, and that he had come round the
east passage between islands 7 and 8 and. Yarandai. This
accounted for the extraordinarily cold weather we had been
having since the previous Sunday.

About four we landed at Dvoinik, and took possession of a
stranded vessel that was lying high and dry upon the beach.
It was settled that the Company's steamer should call for
us on the following Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday,
according to the final arrangements for the starting of our
schooner, the Triads in which we were to make part of
our homeward passage. Meanwhile we were to live at
Dvoinik, in regular Kobinsou Crusoe fashion. The deserted
vessel looked very comfortable, and we anticipated a jolly
time.

Leaving the men to sweep up the hold, we started off in
high glee for a raid upon the little stints. We hastened

266 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

over the tundra, making for the marshy ground upon
which I had seen the dunlins, but not one was there.
Doubtless the young could fly by this time, and had joined
their parents on their favourite feeding ground. On the
brackish lake close by we shot a brood of long-tailed ducks,
and afterwards found an empty nest in the short, coarse
grass, placed exactly a,t high-tide water-mark. It contained
down enough to identify the species. There was no cover to
the nest, except a margin of thin turf, that looked as if it
had been turned up by a spade. . Possibly it had been
pulled up thus by the bill of the bird. On the lake there
were, as before, a couple of black-throated divers. I waited
for a short while, hiding in the cleft of the bank, as I had
done on the previous occasion, when I had shot the little
stints, but none were to be seen. I then skirted the margin
of the bay to its narrow entrance, having spied a grey
plover or two, a pair of Arctic terns, and a few herring-gulls.
When there, a small number of dunlins passed rapidly over-
head, and I repeatedly saw flocks of little stints. How-
ever, these might have been the same flock passing and
repassing. They were very wild, and I could not get a shot.
Some time before, my companion and I had parted company.
We now met at one of the capes at the southern extremity
of the high promontory. Cocksure was with him. On
comparing notes I found their experience had been much
the same as mine, only Cocksure had shot a Temminck's
stint, near the sandhills. In returning we separated again
to cover more ground ; and again when we met, and com-
pared notes, we found that to each the sandhills, the lakes,

CHAP. xxi. LITTLE STINT. 267

and the shores had proved a blank, destitute of bird-
life.

We then separated for a stroll on the tundra. I had not gone
far before I heard our interpreter Piottuch shouting in a state
of great excitement. Harvie-Brown was the first to come
up; and I joined them shortly afterwards. I found them
sitting on the ground, with a couple of little stints in down.
I sat down beside them, and we watched the parent bird as
she was fluttering and flying and running all round us, some-
times coming within a foot of one of us. After securing the
old bird we went on a short distance, and Piottuch again
made loud demonstrations of delight. This time it was nest
and eggs. The nest was like that of most sandpipers, a
mere depression in the ground, with such dead maroshka
(cloudberry) leaves and other dry material as was within
easy reach, scraped together to serve as lining. The position
was on a comparatively dry extent of tundra, sloping from
the top of the little turf cliffs that rise from the lagoon down
to the sandhills at the twin capes, between which the tide
runs in and out of a little inland sea. These sandhills are
flanked on the side next the sea with piles of drift-wood of
all sizes and shapes — lofty trees which have been mown
down by the ice when the great river broke up and in many
places overflowed its banks, squared balks of timber washed
away by the floods from the stores of the Petchora Timber-
trading Company, and spars of luckless ships that have been
wrecked on these inhospitable shores. They are sparingly
sprinkled over with esparto grass, and soon run into an
irregular strip of sand and gravel. This part of the coast,

268 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. XXL

however, does not seem to have any attraction for the little
stints. There were plenty of ringed plover upon it, and a
few Temminck's stints ; and we saw a pair of snow-buntings
with five young, which had probably been bred amongst the
drift-wood. At Dvoinik, however, for perhaps a verst from
each twin cape, between the sand and the mouth of the
little inland sea, is an extent of dead flat land, covered over
with thick short grass, and full of little lakes, mostly very
shallow and filled with black or coffee-coloured mud with an
inch or two of brackish water upon it. Some of these pools
are covered with aquatic plants ; and others are open water.
These lakes and pools seem to be the real point of attraction ;
and on their edges the little stints feed, in small flocks of
from half-a-dozen birds to a score, as they happen to meet
from the tundra. The large flock of perhaps a hundred or
more birds, which was occasionally seen, might possibly
have been last year's birds and not breeding ; but more
probably it consisted entirely of males, which, so far as we
had an opportunity of observing, do not take any part in
incubation. The ground where the nests were placed was
full of tussocks or hummocks, close together, the swampy
ground between being almost hidden, or traceable only by
rows of cotton-grass. The tussocks are covered with green
moss, with now and then a little reindeer-moss ; but this
undergrowth is almost hidden with cloudberry, a few species
of juncus, and sundry carices, with occasionally a few dwarf
shrubs and flowers of the tundra. The nests were within a
hundred yards of the place where I shot the five little stints
on the 14th of July, on a comparatively dry extent of tundra

CHAP. xxi. - THE TUNDRA. 269

gently sloping towards the north-east, lying between the
lagoon and the inland sea — exactly the place that one would
expect them to breed in, not too swampy, but probably the
coolest place the birds could have chosen. The Pytkoff
Mountains, though at a considerably greater elevation
(513 feet above the level of the sea), are no doubt warmer,
because more inland. The sandy shore, having little or no
cover, would also be hotter from the sun. Facing the north-
east, this part of the tundra catches the most of the pre-
vailing winds at this season of the year, and the least sun ;
and no doubt the large bay or inland sea on one side, and
the open water on the other, help to cool the air. The
choice of a breeding-place bears only a secondary relation to
latitude, longitude, or elevation. It is inaccurate to state
that at the westerly or southerly limit of their distribution
birds breed at the greatest elevation. This may or may not
be the case, according to circumstances. The whole question
is doubtless one of temperature ; and the true statement of
the case must be, that at the warmest limit of their dis-
tribution birds choose the coolest locality in which to breed —
a statement which almost amounts to a platitude, but one,
nevertheless, that cannot be too constantly remembered by
field-naturalists in search of undiscovered breeding-grounds.

We had already given names to the different sorts of
ground on the tundra. The dry, grassy hills were the shore-
lark ground ; the dead flat bog, intersected with tussocky
ridges, was the grey plover ground ; the swampy marsh,
covered with long grass, was the reeve ground. Where the
grass was shorter and more tangled and knotted it became

270 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

dunlin ground; and where this short grassy swamp was
sprinkled over with tussocks of dryer earth, covered over
with moss and flowers, then it was the Lapland bunting or
red-throated pipit ground. Where the tussocks lay so close
together that they reminded one of the hundred vaults or
rather domes of the Stamboul bazaar seen from the minaret of
Santa Sophia, and the swampy ground was almost hidden,
or traceable only by rows of cotton-grass, we agreed to call
for1 the future " little stint " ground. The hummocks were
covered with green moss, mingled here and there with a
little hoary reindeer moss. This undergrowth was concealed
by the maroslika (the cloudberry), a species of juncus,
cariees, the dwarf sweet-smelling rhododendron, and other
shrubs and flowers of the tundra.

The following day the wintry chill of the last few days had
disappeared, and it was summer-time abroad. The wind
had dropped, the clouds had gone from the sky : this was the
bright side of the change ; the reverse was the clouds of
mosquitoes that hung over the tundra. Brown and I visited
the little stint ground, on the principle of "stick to your
covey ;" but not a bird or a nest could we see upon it. We
shot a wheatear on the shore, saw a pair of sanderlings,
dropped a fine glaucous gull, a reeve, and some other birds,
then returned to our quarters. Our Sainoyede brought us
a couple of nests of long-tailed ducks, one containing three
eggs, the other five. We were tired out, so having cooked
a duck for dinner, we went to bed at 4 A.M., to rise at
11 A.M. We began our day (let the reader forgive the
Irishism, it is only a Petchorski bull), by watching the sun

CHAP. xxi. NORTH TWIN CA.TE. 271

set and rise again in the space of an hour or so ; then we set
off, hoping to get the start of the mosquitoes. It was a dead
calm, and taking the boat, we crossed over to the north
twin cape. We found the sand barren of special interest, as
it had been on the other side, only the intrusive ringed plover
made as much hubbub as a hundred little stints or grey
plovers would have done, evidently considering its eggs
were the only ones we could possibly be in search of. The
lakes and pools were very similar in shape and appearance
to those on the south cape. Temminck's stint were some-
what more abundant, and we fell in with one small party of
little stints. Before leaving this ground we devoted an
hour to duck-shooting for the pot, and bagged three long-
tailed ducks, and one pintail duck with two young in
down. We then turned our attention to the tundra, which
rapidly rose some forty feet or so, afterwards sloping
gradually down apparently to the Pytkoff hills, distant some
fifteen miles. In many places a white mist lay over the land-
scape, resembling far away lakes. There were abundance
of small pools of water, but we could not distinguish them
until within a short distance. In suitable ground the grey
plover abounded, and we shot young Lapland buntings ; yet
on the whole the tundra did not look inviting — grey plovers
and their eggs were not sufficient attraction to lure us to
face the mosquitoes ; so turning away from it we began to
explore the shores of a river winding inland. On its high
steep grassy banks we found shore-larks, old and young, and
what was even more to the purpose and acceptable in our
present Kobinson Crusoe situation, was an abundance of

272 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

leeks or eschalots, of which we laid in a plentiful supply.
We recognised soaring overhead an eagle, we saw some
skuas, ringed plovers, Temminck's stints, redpoles, but nothing
of special interest. It was now about 8 o'clock, so we rowed
back to the entrance of the inland sea, intending to cross
over to our quarters on the south cape, when suddenly a
dense white mist, coming from the Arctic ice, fell upon us.
We hastened to run our boat ashore, stopping to shoot a
sanderling on a sandbank, and soon after an arctic tern.

Our next nest of the little stint was taken on the 24th of
July. Harvie-Brown and I had been up all night, shooting
by the light of the midnight sun, hoping to avoid the mos-
quitoes, and were returning home to our wrecked ship in a
thick white morning mist. I stopped behind to refresh
myself with a bath, and afterwards turned towards the little
stint ground. Just as I reached it I was glad to see Piottuch
emerge from the white mist, with the intelligence that he
had found another nest of the little stint, containing four eggs,
about three versts off, and had shot the bird, leaving the nest
and eggs for us to take. We walked on together a short
distance, when I heard the now familiar cry of a little stint
behind me, a sharp wick, almost exactly the same as the cry
of the red-necked phalarope, or that of the sanderling.
Turning quickly round, I saw the bird flying past as if
coming up from its feeding-grounds. It wheeled round us at
some distance and alighted on the ground about eighty yards
ahead. We walked slowly up towards it, and stood for some
time watching it busily employed in preening its feathers.
By-and-by we sat down. It presently began to run towards

CHAP. xxi. LITTLE STINT. 273

us, stopping now and then to preen a feather or two ; then
it turned back a few paces, and lifting its wings settled
down, evidently on its nest. We gave it three minutes'
grace, to be quite sure, and then quietly walked up to the
place, and sat down, one on each side of the eggs. The bird
as quietly slipped off the nest, and began to walk about all
round us, now and then pecking on the ground as if feeding,
seldom going more than six feet from us, and often ap-
proaching within eighteen inches. It was a most interesting
and beautiful sight. The tameness of the bird was almost
ludicrous. We chatted and talked ; but the bird remained
perfectly silent, and did not betray the slightest symptom
of fear or concern, until I touched the eggs. She then gave
a flutter towards me, apparently to attract my attention. I
turned towards her, and she resumed her former unconcern.
I stretched my hand towards her. She quietly retreated,
keeping about two feet from my hand. She seemed so
extremely tame that I almost thought for the moment that
I could catch her, and getting on to all fours I crept quietly
towards her. As soon as I began to move from the nest, her
manner entirely changed. She kept about the same dis-
tance ahead of me ; but instead of retreating, with the utmost
apparent nonchalance, she did everything in her power to
attract me still farther. She shuffled along the ground as
if lame. She dropped her wings as if unable to fly, and
occasionally rested on her breast, quivering her drooping
wings and spread tail, as if dying. I threw one of my
gauntlets at her, thinking to secure her without damage,
but she was too quick for me. Piottuch then fired at her,

274 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

and missed. He followed her for some distance ; but she
kept just out of range, and finally flew away. We waited
about a quarter of an hour at the nest, talking and making
no effort to conceal ourselves, when she flew straight up and
alighted within easy shot, and I secured her. The little
stint seems to be a very quiet bird at the nest, quite different
from Temminck's stint. When you invade a colony of the
latter birds, especially if they ha\7e young, the parents
almost chase you from the spot— flying wildly round and
round, and crying vociferously, often perching upon a stake
or a tree, or hovering in the air and trilling. We observed
none of these habits in the little stint. So far as we saw,
only the female takes part in incubation, and only the
female is seen near the nest. On our way back to the
wreck we met with a party of sanderlings on the shore,
and shot two of them. No doubt these birds were breeding
somewhere in the district. After a good dinner of willow-
grouse and a siesta of three hours, we started to take the
nest that Piottuch had marked. Whilst we had slept the
weather had changed. The mosquitoes had all gone. A
smart gale was blowing from the north, and a heavy sea was
breaking on the shore. It was cloudy, and dark, and cold,
with an attempt now and then at rain. The nest was a
couple of miles off, very near the shore of the inland sea,
but on somewhat similar ground— moss, cloudberry, grass,
&c. The eggs were intermediate in colour between those
of the other two nests. On our return to our quarters we
found that our Samoyede servant had caught a young little
stint, half-grown, a very interesting bird. Like the young

CHAP. xxi. EGGS OF LITTLE STINT. 275

of the dunlin, the first feathers are those of summer plumage.
On comparing the young in down and half-grown birds of the
dunlin with those of the little stint, we noted that the legs
of young dunlin in down were pale brown, whilst those of
the half-grown and mature birds were nearly black ; the little
stint, on the other hand, seems to have nearly black legs
and feet at all ages.

The little stint is evidently much more nearly allied to
the dunlin than to Temminck's stint, and ought to be called
the little dunlin. The birds are very similar in colour.
The eggs of the little stint can hardly be mistaken for those
of Temminck's stint, but are in every respect miniature
dunlins' eggs. The young in down of Temminck's stint are
quite grey compared with the reddish-brown of the young
of the dunlin. The young in down of the little stint are
still redder, especially on the sides and the back of the
neck.

The average size of the twenty eggs we obtained of the
little stint is about 1-^ x f inch, a trifle smaller than the
eggs of Temminck's stint usually are. The ground-colour
varies from pale greenish- grey to pale brown. The spots
and blotches are rich brown, generally large, and some-
times confluent at the large end. They probably go through
every variety to which dunlins' eggs are subject. All the
little stints' eggs which we found, with one exception, which
would probably be a barren one, were very much incu-
bated.

The following morning the gale from the north continued.
It was a mosquitoless day, but very cold ; a heavy sea still

276 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

broke against the shore ; ever and anon the sun shone, but
masses of cloud kept drifting over the sky. We spent the
day in exploring the tundra in the direction of the Bolvanski
Bucht. Far as the eye could reach, the country stretched
before us, a gently undulating moor, an Arctic prairie, a
Siberian tundra ; no hills were on the horizon, save the short
range of the Pytkoff Kamin. Plenty of lakes, large and
small, gleamed upon the expanse, the banks of most of
which were steep and of peat ; others were flat, and covered
with rushy grass ; rarely were they sandy. Here and there
the pools were almost dried up ; some were so choked up by
coarse grasses, rushes, and carices, as to become swamps,
holding a little space of open water in the centre. These
morasses were quite accessible, however, for our waterproof
boots ; we would sink some twelve to eighteen inches through
water and mud, and reach a safe bottom, hard and level as a
stone floor, a solid pavement of ice. We spent an hour or
two wading round one of these open spaces of water, forming
the centre of a choked-up lakelet. Upon a little island of
firm ground, that raised its summit above the reeds, was the
empty nest of some bird, probably a gull, and close to the
open water was the nest of a black-throated diver, with one
egg. The latter was placed upon a foundation of roots and
dead grass, half turned to peat, raked up from the bottom of
the swamp, and upon this was laid a lining of fresh green
flaggy grass. The egg was very small ; but both parent
birds were flying overhead, often coming near enough for
their species to be identified. On the open water phalaropes
were swimming, and we frequently rose them from the grasses

CHAP. xxi. GEESE. 277

at our feet. Their behaviour plainly showed that they were
breeding ; they circled round us wildly, uttering their usual
cry. We secured three young in down, only recently
hatched.

We spent another hour on the banks of a large lake, upon
which swam two pairs of long-tailed ducks, each with its
brood. After waiting and watching and stalking, we got
hold of two old birds, two of the young in down of one
brood, and six more grown-up young of the other. On the
sandy margin of another lake, white with the seeds of the
cotton-grass, we saw several ringed plover, and shot one little
stint. We came upon a few Buffon's skuas, and on their
ground we found the grey plover abundant as usual.
Keturning home, I chose the lee shore for my route, and
watched as I came along several glaucous and herring gulls,
saw a pair of wheatears, and shot a shore-lark.

Meanwhile our Samoyede and our half-bred had made a
long excursion into the tundra by the banks of the rivers
Erisvanka and Eevka. They described the country as exactly
the same as that which we already knew — moor, swamp, and
bog, with plenty of lakes, large and small. They had met
nothing of interest, except ducks, geese, and swans. These
birds were now evidently leaving their breeding haunts and
retiring into the tundra to moult. During that period of com-
parative helplessness and inability to fly, they are attacked
by the Samoyedes on their way back from Varandai and
the Bolshai Tundra. These Samoyedes will have grand
battues amongst the geese, and will return to the Petchora
laden with feathers and down, which they will sell at the

278 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

Pinega fair. Our men brought back with them but one
bird. This was perhaps the most interesting of all to us ;
shot on the banks of a great lake in company with four
others — a Bewick's swan.

On the morrow the storm of the preceding day continued,
and rain fell during the morning; so we spent the hours
inside our wreck, writing up our journals and examining
the phalaropes. We found that the bill of some of them,
though apparently not more slender, is much more flexible
than that of the birds we had hitherto obtained. The rust-
red on the neck of the latter is found on the crown of the
head of the former; it is also present on the tail; it is
more conspicuous on the back, and forms a broad edging to
the longer feathers of the bastard wing. The wings are of a
neutral tint, a soft bluish-grey, while those of our former birds
are distinctly brown. The legs and feet differ also in colour.
Those of the first-obtained birds are of a uniform dark lead
colour, faintly tinged with ytllow on the margin of the
webs. In the birds last shot, the back of the legs and the
under surface of the feet are pale yellow ; the front of the
legs and the upper surface of the feet are a grey flesh hue.
The colour of the sides of the head and of the breast is
notably darker in the former than it is in the latter.

The idle morning seemed a long one. After dinner we
smoked a pipe, whiled away the time in chatting, and then
retired, as I thought, very early to bed. I woke after some
hours and got up, for I had had sleep enough, shouldered my
gun, and went out, leaving all the others still deep in their
slumbers. It was very windy, and ever and anon came

CHAP. xxi. CONFUSION OF TIME. 279

gusts of rain, yet there were more birds than usual out
feeding. " It 's the early bird that catches the worm," I said
to myself.

My first care was to seek out the little stint ground ; I
saw several birds upon it, but not the trace of a nest could
I discover. Then I took a long stroll along the edge of the
inland sea and by the banks of the river beyond ; as I went
along I constantly heard the clear, sharp, but not loud cry
of the little stint and phalarope (wick), but I had not yet
learned to distinguish the one from the other, nor could I
then tell either from the cry of the sanderling. The
spluttering note of the Teraminck's stint is very distinct
(pt-r-r-r) ; so is the dunlin's thick hoarse cry of peezli, or its
grating call-note (trr), as well as the noisy too-it of the ringed
plover.

I had been out some hours when I met my companion,
and hailed him with lt Good morning." He answered with
" Good evening." We both agreed the hour was seven, but
we differed as to its being A.M. or P.M. I was convinced
it was the morning of the morrow, whereas Brown was
persuaded it was yester-evening. A never-setting sun plays
strange pranks with one's reckoning of time.

Harvie-Brown had worked the little stint ground, but
had not seen a bird upon it. While with me, he shot a brace
of grey plovers ; then we parted, and I returned to the
little stint feeding haunts. I secured a brace of them, a
few dunlins, old and young, and a grey plover ; also some
young Temminck's stint half-way between feathers and down.
As I was picking up the latter I discerned in the distance

280 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

the form of a great white bird, which seemed to me to alight
upon a distant lake. Taking it to be a Bewick's swan, I put
a slug-cartridge into my gun and walked rapidly on in its
direction. Before I got within shot of it the bird rose, and
I saw a snowy owl drop behind the sandhills. I carefully
stalked it, looked around, and after a time descried a white
spot resting on the north twin cape, which, with the aid of
my telescope, I discovered to be the owl. He, too, must have
been watching me; perhaps he took my sealskin cap for
some new species of lemming, for presently he rose and flew
across the water directly towards me. By the time he had
reached the other twin cape he evidently discovered his
mistake, and alighted on the beach about sixty yards in
front of me. I rose and walked towards him ; he also rose,
but before he had flown ten yards my shot reached him,
broke one of his wings and dropped him into the sea. As
he lay struggling in the water a score of glaucous and herring
gulls came flying towards him, and sailed round and round
him, making quite a small uproar with their cries. I was
too anxious, however, to secure my first snowy owl to pay
any heed to them, especially as my gun's extractor had got
out of order ; I therefore plunged into the water, and, as it
was shallow, I soon landed my prize.

My gun's cartridge extractor was a complicated new-
fangled patent invention, and already that day it had caused
me to lose a pair of Buffon's skuas. I had shot a young
dunlin, on the muddy margin of the inland sea, breaking
with the same barrel the wing of an old dunlin ; with the
second barrel I had killed a little stint. The wounded bird

CHAP. xxi. BUFFON'S SKUAS. 281

lay a few yards off, when suddenly, down there flew upon it
a couple of Buffon's skuas, who quarrelled over it, and
carried it off before I could wade through the mud to the
rescue.

After securing the owl, I carried ray trophy home in
triumph, overtaking my companion by the way. On reach-
ing the wreck, we finally settled the question of evening or
morning. We satisfactorily established that it was the
former, so we dined and went to bed again.

The next day the gale continued, but there was some
sunshine, and the cold kept the mosquitoes at bay. I spent
my morning superintending the cooking of the swan our
men had brought the preceding day. Meanwhile Harvie-
Brown went out to the far end of the inland sea, and got
a little distance from the spot where we had found the last
nest of the little stint : he came upon two more. We had
by this time twenty of these birds' eggs; all miniature
dunlins' eggs, and like them, varying in colour. These two
nests were not built on the tundra proper, but on the little
stints' feeding-ground ; a flat sandy strip of land on which
grew short grass and bunches of a thick-leaved yellow
flowering plant, sprinkled here and there with dried-up or
drying pools, and upon which drift-wood lay scattered in
all directions. The tundra stops at some 150 yards from
the seashore, and this stretch of feeding-ground lies between
it and the water's edge.

After lunching on the baked breast of the swan, I returned
to the wreck, but by a different route to that which my
companion had taken. I took the boat across to the north

282 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxi.

twin cape, and was an hour pulling half a verst against the
heavy gale. I then skirted the margin of a long narrow
inlet, exactly like the dried-up bed of a river, that runs some
miles into the tundra, bending round almost behind the
inland sea. I had not gone more than a mile when I heard
the cackle of geese ; a bend of the river's bed gave me an
opportunity of stalking them, and when I came within sight
I beheld an extraordinary and interesting scene. One hun-
dred, at least, old geese, and quite as many young ones,
perhaps even twice or thrice that number, were marching
like a regiment of soldiers. The vanguard, consisting of
old birds, was halfway across the stream ; the rear, composed
principally of goslings, was running down the steep bank
towards the water's edge as fast as their young legs could
carry them. Both banks of the river, where the geese had
doubtless been feeding, were strewn with feathers, and in five
minutes I picked up a handful of quills. The flock was
evidently migrating to the interior of the tundra, moulting
as it went along.

On the top of the high embankment, bordering the river,
I came upon a wooden monument, about a foot in height
and width, and from two to three feet in length. The wood
was entirely rotten, and I easily broke or tore the lid that
still covered it open. Inside I found bones like those of a
dog, a broken vessel of glazed earthenware, the rusty remains
of an iron vase, and an abundance of mould. Outside were
fragments of bleached bone, like the remains of an infant's
skull. This was doubtless a Samoyede's tomb ; but we could
not determine if it was that of an infant, whose remains

CHAP. XXI.

BIRDS.

283

had been buried in the box, or that of an adult interred
below.

After loitering some time about this spot, I pushed on
farther, crossing over a plateau of tundra, well covered in
places with willows, some three feet high. Here I found
willow-grouse, both old and young, well able to fly ; many
willow-warblers, a few redpoles, and one blue-throated
warbler.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

MIGRATION OF GEESE.

CHAPTEE XXII.

On short commons — Bad weather — A foraging party — Russian superstitions —
Return of the steamer — Beautiful flowers — Arrival at Alexievka — Departure
for home — Thunder-storm — Water-spout — Sea-birds — Hard fare — Copenhagen
— Summary of the trip.

MATTERS were beginning to look somewhat serious in our
Kobinson Crusoe encampment. The heavy gale continued
to blow unabated, and it was very probable the steamer
would not call for us until the sea grew quieter. Meanwhile
our larder was nearly empty. We were reduced to half a
loaf of bread, and to what birds we could secure. We
breakfasted on a grey plover, a brace of dunlins, and three

CHAP. XXII.

BAR-TAILED GODWIT.

285

duck's eggs, which, though somewhat incubated, yet made a
good omelette. There was nothing, however, for dinner ; so
we all turned out to provide for the pot. Harvie-Brown
went south, and returned with only a few dunlins and a grey
plover ; he had chased a bar-tailed godwit * for some distance
near the seashore, but had not got within shot. I had met
with no better luck, although I had brought down a dozen
dunlins and grey phalaropes as they fed on the margin of a
lake. I had been able, however, only to secure three. At
the first step I took in the direction of my prizes, I sank
lower than knee-deep into the black mud. My gun also
snapped at a willow-grouse within easy aim. We returned
to our quarters somewhat down-hearted ; the gale was blow-
ing fiercer than ever, a thick mist covered the sea, gusts of
wind drove the rain into the wreck. We cooked ourselves
a supper of fried dunlins, allowed to each a weak basin of
Liebig's extract-of-meat soup, and half a slice of bread.
About midnight, as we smoked our pipes and listened to
the howling and spitting of the wind and rain outside, our
thoughts followed the forlorn-hope party we had sent out,
and we doubted whether it would meet with better luck than

* The bar-tailed god wit (Limosa
lapponica, Linn.) is confined to the
eastern hemisphere, ranging as far as
Kamtchatka, the eastern form having
been erroneously described as a new
species under the names of Limosa
novae - zelandice (Gray) and Limosa
europygialis (Gould). In the British
Islands it is only known as a spring
and autumn migrant, being especially
abundant in the latter season. But

little is known of its breeding-grounds,
the only authentic eggs having been
obtained in Lapland near the Arctic
circle. It winters on both shores of the
Mediterranean, but has not been recorded
from South Africa. Eastwards it winters
in Scinde, Australia, New Zealand,
the islands of the Malay Archipelago,
China, and Japan. In the valley of the
Petchora we only met with this single
example, which we failed to secure.

286 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxn.

we had. This party consisted of Cocksure, the Samoyede,
and the half-bred. They had gone on what we firmly felt
might be called, in a double sense, a wild-goose chase, in
pursuit of the flock of geese I had seen the day before
migrating across the water into the tundra* We went to
bed hoping against hope, and were woke up towards four by
the noisy arrival of our envoys, carrying back in triumph
eleven old geese and five young ones. One of the party had
taken the boat up the river upon which I had seen the
flock. The other two followed, each keeping upon opposite
banks. They came upon the geese a few versts higher up
than the spot at which I had seen them, and falling upon
them had made a grand haul of birds. The laying in of this
stook of provisions lifted a burden off our minds. We now
proceeded to administer, with better grace than we could
have done before, a sound rating to our two lazy, good-for-
nothing Russian servants. They were the only two who had
grumbled during this time of perplexity ; for ever muttering
that if the storm did not abate, and the steamer come to our
rescue, we should surely all be " propal" (lost). We had
ordered one to join the forlorn-hope party, but he had soon
returned, and all the night he had done little but kneel in a
state of abject fear, trembling, crossing himself, and crying,
" Hospodee, Hospodee, cli kleb " (Lord, Lord, give us bread).
These poor dupes of the miserable Greek Church have not
learnt the wholesome doctrine Cromwell taught his soldiers,
"To trust in the Lord and keep their powder dry." Like
many other fanatics at home and abroad, they close their
eyes to the truth that God may bless their work, but will

CHAP. xxir. THE STEAMER. 287

never bless their idleness. As a just punishment for their
sloth and cowardice, we condemned them to pluck the geese,
on which we and the captors made a hearty meal ; while we
regaled ourselves they had to look on, and feast upon leeks.
The larger number of geese, being in full moult, had been
unable to fly. Cocksure assured us that both old and young
constantly hid themselves under the water, where some
remained, just keeping their beaks above the surface, for ten
minutes at a time. He added that he had often observed
the same thing in Mezen during the moulting season.

The gale had exhausted its violence during the night, and
gradually slackened and wore itself out during the day ;
when the following morning came, the weather was quite
calm. With ten geese in our larder, we considered our-
selves entitled to a lazy day ; we wandered out in the
tundra, making a small collection of the flowers that grow
upon it, the bonnie bright Arctic blossoms that deck for
a few weeks that region of ice. We shot an immature gull,
and loafed about, feeling that we had exhausted the place,
and hoping for the arrival of the steamer. A flock of what
we took to be sandpipers, flying wildly overhead, uttering a
note like that of the knot, roused our curiosity. When we
at last succeeded in shooting one, the bird turned out to be
a reeve. Another incident in this, our last day, was tracing
the footprints of a swan in the mud, and identifying them
as those of a Bewick's swan.

At two o'clock the following morning, I was on our wreck's
deck, chatting with Cocksure, when on the horizon we caught
sight of the steamer. All our companions were asleep, except

288 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxn.

the half-bred ; five minutes later, all were up arid hard at
work packing. By five o'clock we were on board, steaming
over a sea smooth as glass towards Bolvanski Nos. At eight
we went on shore at Stanavialachta to visit the peregrine's
nest, where we expected to find a new lot of eggs. From a
distance we could see the male bird sitting on the spot. He
allowed us to approach to within ten or twelve yards, when
suddenly he took the alarm and rose. We fired and dropped
him on the beach below. There were no eggs in the nest.
Probably the female bird was sitting on the other eyrie ; but
we were dead-beat with fatigue, and the hillsides swarmed
with mosquitoes, so we made our way back at once to the
steamer, shooting a willow-grouse as we went, a male in fine
summer plumage. The flowers on this part of the tundra
were very beautiful, vividly coloured, and abundant ; espe-
cially lovely was a tall monkshood and a species of pink.
On board the steamer we stretched ourselves on the sofa in
the cabin, and fell asleep, only to awake when the steamer
stopped at Alexievka about noon.

The Triad was making ready to start on the morrow ; her
cargo was to be about 8000 cubic feet of larch. Our stay
in these Arctic latitudes was now fast drawing to an end. I
spent the afternoon looking about the island, directing my
search especially for young of the yellow-headed wagtail.
Scarcely was a bird to be seen out of cover. Grass nearly
two feet high covered the ground, and the willows were in
full leaf. It was difficult enough to get a shot at a bird, and
almost impossible to find it when brought down. At last I
tried the coast, and found plenty of birds feeding amongst the

CHAP. xxn. HOMEWARD BOUND. 289

drift-wood and the prostrate willows that had fallen with the
crumbling away of the banks. Yellow-headed wagtails, red-
throated pipits, and reed buntings were here in abundance.
I could not stay, however, for the sun was scorching hot, and
the mosquitoes were swarming around.

I spent the night with Captain Taylor and Captain Arendt
on board the Triad, giving a helping hand in superintending
the loading of the schooner. The heat was so intense that I
could scarcely bear the suffocation of my mosquito-veil,
and seldom put it on. The consequence was I was more
bitten in those few hours than I had been during the whole
of my previous stay. I did not turn in till 6 A.M., and woke
at 11, and spent my day making out our bills of lading
for Captain Arendt. At 5 o'clock on Sunday, August 1st,
we finally bade farewell to the tundra and to our wandering
life, and began our journey towards Europe and civilisation.
We left Alexievka in tow of the steamer, reaching the bar
soon after midnight. The cutter signalled ten feet of water ;
as we were drawing so much, as was to be expected, we
were soon aground. I sat up with the captain all night, as
we tediously manoeuvred through the shallow water. We
had just lit the fire to cook some supper, when Engel sud-
denly heaving anchor, we got under weigh again. The
captain took the helm, and I remained below cooking the
steaks and making the coffee ; but we were soon aground
once more, and we ate our meal in the cabin. For some
hours we went on, sometimes aground, sometimes scraping
the bank, until at last we crossed the bar; then Engel
towed us until we sighted the beacon at Dvoinik ; all sails

u

29o SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxn.

were now set, and we steered N.E. by N. with a gentle
breeze. All the following day and night we tacked from
one bank of shoal water to another, with a head wind against
us. The lead was kept constantly going, and as soon as the
water under the keel was less than a foot, orders were im-
mediately given to " 'bout ship." By good luck or good
management, we succeeded in getting out of the lagoon
of the Petchora without running aground again, though
Captain Taylor vowed that nothing should ever induce him
a second time to risk a ship in such a dangerous and difficult
river. We had scarcely cleared the banks more than half
an hour before the wind dropped entirely ; the sails flapped
idly on the masts, and we sent the crew to bed. We were
lounging on the after part of the ship, telling our adventures
to the captain, when three curious clouds, like beehives,
appeared to rise on the horizon. We were leaning over the
bulwarks watching these unusual shapes in the sky, when
our attention was caught by the sound of a distant rum-
bling. The sea was as smooth as glass, and we were debating
whether the noise was not that of the Arctic ice, when the
captain descried a distant ripple on the sea, and started up
as if he had been shot. Hastily asking me to take the
rudder, he ran to the hatchway and cried out, at the top of
his voice, " All hands on deck ! " Every possible exertion
was made to haul down the canvas ; but before this could be
accomplished the gale came upon us, and the ship reeled as
the squall struck her, first on the starboard and then on the
port side. By the time the canvas had been taken in, the
squall had become violent, the sea rose, peals of thunder

CHAP. xxii. WATERSPOUT. 291

followed each other rapidly, and rain came down in
torrents. A still more extraordinary sight presented itself
shortly afterwards— a waterspout. About half a mile from
the ship the clouds came down in a funnel, and deluges of
rain appeared to fall under it, the sea being lashed into
foam as if ten thousand millstones had been suddenly hurled
into it. It was some hours before the wind settled down
again ; but it proved to be a favourable one, and we made
fair progress homewards through a Scotch mist from the
Arctic ice.

For two days we had fog and fair wind, then came wind
and sunshine. On the 3rd of August a few flocks of phalaropes
passed overhead, and on the 4th a pair of snowy owls alighted
on the ship. We saw also several kittiwake gulls and Pom-
merine skuas. Then from the 8th of August to the 29th
came three dreary weeks, during which the ship wearily
toiled on, against heavy gales and contrary winds ; ever and
anon would come a fair breeze, to prevent us despairing
altogether of ever reaching Elsinore. It seemed hopeless
often enough. Various were the tacks the captain tried on
the way. One day we would lie-to with head to wind, and
let the good ship drift back with the heavy gale towards
Colguif; another we would tear along, blown forward by
an equally fierce wind, which we welcomed, for it was bear-
jng us homeward. Now we would lie motionless with sails
idly flapping against the masts, and again we would be cut-
ting the water with a favourable breeze impelling us on. As
we approached the Cape the weather grew wilder, it seemed
as if we could never round it ; the bold promontory appeared

293 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP, xxn

to frighten away all fair winds. When we were within
eighty rniles of Cherie Isle, our search for it was vain ; it
lay shrouded in impenetrable fogs. At last we left the ill-
starred land behind us. We passed the wild peaks of the
Lofodens; we left the storm-tossed waves beating at their
feet, and hailed the mountains behind Christiansand in
genial weather. During those weeks we saw almost daily
kittiwakes and Fulmar petrels ; now and then there passed
a skua or a puffin or two, but no bird on migration.

After another week of fair winds, head winds, calms, and
gales, we reached Elsinore on the thirty-fifth day. All this
time we had roughish fare on board. The Triad had no
provision for passengers. The first week exhausted our
stock of grog and fresh provisions, and the remainder of
the journey we had to put up with hard captains' biscuits,
Australian tinned meat, and coffee with no milk and short
rations of sugar. When we landed at Elsinore, our first care
was to order a good dinner, which we all agreed was the
most superb entertainment we had ever sat down to. For
the last fortnight we had dreamed of dining, but always
woke before the happy moment arrived. Our dinner at
Elsinore was enjoyed with an appetite which we never hope
to experience again. Taking the night train to Copenhagen,
we arrived there on the morning of Monday the 6th of
September. We were disappointed in our efforts to find a
steamer for England, so proceeded at once to Hamburg,
where my companion found a boat for Leith ; and I lost
no time in putting myself and, not my " sieben Sachen," but
my "siebzehn Sachen " on board a steamer for Hull.

CHAP. xxii. SUMMARY OF TRIP. 293

I left Hamburg in the Zebra on Wednesday the 8th of
September, and after a smooth passage landed in Hull on
Saturday the llth instant, having been away from home rather
more than twenty-seven weeks. Of this time the journey
out occupied about six weeks ; another six weeks was spent
in weary waiting for the arrival of spring ; and the journey
home took up a third period of six weeks, leaving only nine
weeks in which the bulk of our ornithological work was
done. Fortunately during this time we had twenty-four
hours daylight, of which we frequently availed ourselves.
By dint of hard work and long hours we succeeded in doing
more in these nine weeks than we could possibly have
expected. There can be no doubt that we were exceptionally
fortunate in chancing upon the localities frequented by birds
which appear to be extremely local during the breeding
season.

OLD RUSSIAN SILVER CROSS.

FROM MEKITZA TO KUYA ON A BOSPOSKI.

CHAPTEE XXIII.

Results of the trip — Summer in the Arctic regions — Circumpolar birds — Birds
confined to the eastern hemisphere — Various ranges of birds — Migration of
birds — Dates of arrival — Probable route — Conclusion.

THE results of our somewhat adventurous journey exceeded
our most sanguine hopes.

Of the half-dozen British birds, the discovery of whose
breeding-grounds had baffled the efforts of our ornithologists
for so long, we succeeded in bringing home identified eggs
of three — the grey plover, the little stint, and Bewick's swan.
Of the remaining three, two, the sanderling and the knot,
were found breeding by Captain Fielden, in lat. 82°, during
the Nares Arctic expedition, but the breeding-grounds of

CHAP, xxiii. RESULTS OF THE TRIP. 295

the curlew sandpiper still remain a mystery. We added
several birds to the European list, which had either never
been found in Europe before, or only doubtfully so ; such as
the Siberian chiff-chaff, the Petchora pipit, the Siberian
herring-gull, the Arctic forms of the marsh-tit and the
lesser spotted woodpecker, the yellow-headed wagtail, and
the Asiatic stonechat. We brought home careful records
of the dates of arrival of the migratory birds which breed in
these northern latitudes, besides numerous observations on
the habits of little-known birds. Our list of skins brought
home exceeded a thousand, and of eggs rather more than six
hundred.

The number of species which we obtained was compara-
tively small, the whole of our collecting having been done
north of latitude 65°. The Arctic regions are frost-bound
for eight months out of the twelve, and buried under a
mantle of snow, varying in depth from three to six feet.
During this time they are practically barren of ornitho-
logical life; the small number of birds which remain within
the Arctic Circle forsake the tundras where they breed, to
find food in the pine forests at or near the limit of forest
growth, a few only remaining where the shelter of a deep
valley or watercourse gives cover to a few stunted willows,
birches, and hazel bushes. Practically it may be said that
there is no spring and autumn in the Arctic regions. Sum-
mer follows suddenly upon winter, and the forests and the
" tundra " as suddenly swarm with bird-life. Although the
number of species breeding within the Arctic Circle is com-
paratively small, the number of individuals is vast beyond

296

SIBERIA IN EUROPE.

CHAP. XXIII.

conception. Birds go to the Arctic regions to breed, not by
thousands, but by millions. The cause of this migration is
to be found in the lavish prodigality with which Nature has
provided food. Seed- or fruit-eating birds find an imme-
diate and abundant supply of cranberries, crowberries, and
other ground fruit, which have remained frozen during the
long winter, and are accessible the moment the snow has
melted ; whilst insect-eating birds have only to open their
mouths to fill them with mosquitoes.

Of the 110 species which we obtained, the following are
circumpolar birds breeding both in the eastern and western
hemispheres, being nearly one-third of the total number : —

Osprey.

Peregrine Falcon.
Snowy Owl.
Short-eared Owl.
Eaven.

Pine Grosbeak.
Mealy Keel pole.
Lapland Bunting.
Snow Bunting.
Shore-Lark.
Bohemian Waxwing
Sand Martin.
Willow-Grouse.
Grey Plover.
Ked-necked Phalarope.
Curlew Sandpiper.

Dunlin.
Sanderling.
Shoveller Duck.
Pintail Duck.
Scaup Duck.
Golden-eyed Duck.
Long-tailed Duck.
Goosander.

Eed-breasted Merganser.
Arctic Tern.

Great Black -backed Gull.
Glaucous Gull.
Richardson's Skua.
Buffon's Skua.
Red-throated Diver.
Black-throated Diver.

It will be observed that more than half of these species
are water birds, showing that the communication between
the Palaearctic and the Nearctic regions has been one of
water rather than of land.

The following species are confined to the continents of

CHAP. XXIII.

PAIwEARCTIC BIRDS.

297

En rope and Asia, and range throughout the Arctic regions
of the eastern hemisphere from the North Cape to Behring's
Straits. A few of these are occasionally found in Greenland
and in Alaska, but are not found in the intermediate or
Nearctic regions, though many of them are there represented
by very nearly allied species, showing that the communication
across the Pole has been interrupted at a comparatively
modern geological epoch : —

White-tailed Eagle.

Hobby.

Merlin.

Goshawk.

Sparrow-Hawk.

Hen-Harrier.

Eagle Owl.

Black Woodpecker.

Three-toed Woodpecker.

Cuckoo.

Magpie.

Siberian Jay.

Tree Sparrow.

Scarlet Bullfinch.

Brambling.

Eeed-Bunting.

Buff.

Teraminck's Stint.

Common Snipe.

Great Snipe.

Whimbrel.

Common Crane.

Wild Swan.

Bean-Goose,

Skylark.

Red-throated Pipit.

Green Wagtail.

Blue-throated Warbler.

Wheatear.

Lapp Tit.

Common Swallow.

Black Grouse.

Hazel Grouse.

Little Ringed Plover.

Oystercatcher.

Greenshank.

Wood Sandpiper.

Spotted Redshank.-

Common Sandpiper.

Bar-tailed Godwit.

Teal.

Widgeon.

Tufted Duck.

Velvet Scoter.

Black Scoter.

Smew.

Common Gull.

From the length of this list it might be reasonable to
assume that ornithologists are right in separating the Ne-
arctic region from the Palaearctic region, and that it would be
an error, even as far as Arctic birds only are considered, to

298 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxm.

unite the two together into one circumpolar region. A more
minute examination of the list may, however, lead us to a
different conclusion. It is not correct to speak of a bird
as an Arctic species, unless its breeding-grounds are prin-
cipally within the Arctic Circle. We must, therefore, elimi-
nate from our list those species whose breeding-grounds are
principally south of the Arctic Circle, and only extend beyond
it at the extreme northern limit of their range. This will
dispose of thirty of the species we have enumerated, leaving
only seventeen, of which at least two-thirds are represented
in the Nearctic region by very closely allied species. Of the
half-dozen species which may be said to belong especially
to the eastern Polar region, every one is represented by a
species in the western Polar region belonging to the same
genus.

The following species range from Scandinavia eastwards
as far as the watershed between the Yenesay and the Lena.
The proportionate length of this list shows that this boundary
is almost as important a one as Behring's Straits, especially
when we consider that several of the species enumerated in
the second list cross over into Alaska. On the other hand,
we must not forget that our knowledge of the birds of the
country east of the Yenesay and of China is very limited : —

Rough-legged Buzzard.
Hooded Crow.
Jackdaw.
House Sparrow.
^Northern Bullfinch.
Tree Pipit.
White Wagtail.
Fieldfare.
Redwing.

Eedstart.
Willow-Warbler.
Sedge-Warbler.
Capercailzie.
Golden Plover.
Dotterel.
Ringed Plover.
Little Stint.

CHAP. xxin. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 299

The dotterel and the little stint are the only species in
this list of which it can be said that their principal breeding-
grounds are north of the Arctic Circle. The nearest relations
of the former species are undoubtedly to be found in the
southern Palsearctic region, whilst the genus to which the
latter belongs is well represented in the Polar regions of
both continents.

Two species only appear to range from Scandinavia east-
wards as far as the valley of the Obb, but do not cross the
watershed into the valley of the Yenesay : —

Book.
Yellowhammer.

The Ural Mountains, although they are the boundary
between political Europe and Asia, are by no means so geo-
graphically or ornithologically. So far as we know, one
species only of the Petchora birds recognises this chain as
the eastern limit of its range, viz. : —

Meadow Pipit.

Four species ranging westward from Kamtchatka through-
out Arctic Siberia and across the Ural Mountains, do not
appear to advance farther into Europe, during the breeding
season, than the valley of the Petchora : —

Siberian Pipit. I Siberian Stonecbat,

Yellow-headed Wagtail. ] Bewick's Swan.

Six species, ranging westward from Kamtchatka through-
out Arctic Siberia and across the Ural Mountains, appear

300 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxm.

to extend beyond the valley of the Petchora, as far as the
White Sea, viz. : —

Siberian Lesser-spotted Wood-
pecker.

Little Bunting.
Arctic Willow- Warbler.

Marsh-Tit (eastern form).
Terek Sandpiper.
Siberian Herring-Gull*

One bird only appears to be so restricted in its geographical
range as to be found only in the valleys of the Petchora, the
Obb, and the Yenesay, viz. : —

Siberian Chiff-chaff.

Of the fourteen birds included in the last four lists, only four
or five of them have their principal breeding-grounds within
the Arctic Circle, and these all belong to genera which are
represented in the Nearctic region, with the exception of the
Arctic willow-warbler, which has been obtained in Alaska.

The final conclusion to which we must therefore arrive,
from a study of the geographical distribution of the birds
found in the valley of the Petchora, is that a circumpolar
region ought to be recognised : that so far as the Polar
regions are concerned the division into Nearctic and PalaB-
arctic is a purely arbitrary one.

The migration of birds is a subject which interests all
naturalists, and is a very attractive one to a great number of
persons who do not pretend to any scientific knowledge of
ornithology. The dates and order of arrival of migratory
birds present so many points of interest that, for the sake
of comparison, the following list has been made of all those
birds which we had reason to believe to be migratory in the

CHAP. XXIII.

MIGRATORY BIRDS.

301

Ust-Zylma district, leaving out those to which, from their
rarity or localness, considerable doubt attaches as to their
date of arrival : —

April 1. Snow-Bunting.

„ 1. Mealy Kedpole.

May 4. Hen-Harrier:

„ 5. Merlin.

„ 10. Bean-Goose.

„ 10. Shore-Lark.

„ 10. Snowy Owl.

„ 11. Wild Swan.

„ 11. Bewick's Swan.

„ 11. Siberian Herring-Gull.

„ 12. White Wagtail.

„ 12. Eedstart.

„ 12. Meadow-Pipit.

,, 13. Pintail and other Ducks.

„ 13. Peregrine Falcon.

„ ]4. Keed-Bunting.

„ 15. Common Gull.

„ 17. Golden Plover.

„ 17. Fieldfare.

„ 17. Redwing.

„ 17. Red-throated Pipit.

„ 17. Green Wagtail.

May 18. Lapland Bunting.

„ 18. Wliimbrel.

„ 18. Teal.

;, 20. Willow-Warbler. ;

„ 20. Wheatear.

„ 21. Crane.

„ 22. Siberian ChitT-chaff.

„ 22. Siberian Stonechat.

„ 23. Short-eared Owl.

„ 23. Blue-throated Warbler.

„ 24. Brarnbling.

„ 24. Pine-Grosbeak.

„ 26. Oyster-catcher.

„ 26. Ringed Plover.

„ 26. Wood-Sandpiper.

„ 26. Temminck's Stint.

„ 26. Common Swallow.

„ 31. Little Bunting.
June 3. Cuckoo.

„ 3. Double Snipe.

„ 3. Terek Sandpiper.

3. Black-throated Diver.

This list is necessarily very imperfect. In addition to the
difficulty of ascertaining the date of arrival of rare or local
birds, we had a still greater difficulty to contend with. There
can be no doubt that Ust-Zylma lies somewhat out of the
line of migration, which is probably determined largely by
the direction of the great valleys. Birds from the Mediter-
ranean might fairly be supposed to reach the Yolga via the
Bosphorus, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and the river
Don to Sarepta. The natural course of birds from India

302 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. xxm.

and Persia would be to the Yolga by way of the Caspian
Sea. The line of migration would probably follow the Volga
to Kasan, and thence along the Kama to Perm and Cherdin,
close to the source of the Petchora. The course would then
continue down the Petchora as far as its junction with the
Ussa. It would then be reasonable to conclude that the
hardy species, which migrate early, would have plenty of
time to go round by Ust-Zylma; whilst the later arrivals
would leave the Petchora at Ust-Ussa, and cross direct to the
tundra. For example, the snow-bunting, hen-harrier, merlin,
bean-goose, shore-lark, snowy owl, wild swan, Bewick's swan,
and herring-gull are probably amongst the earliest breeders
on the tundra, and pass through Ust-Zylma, whilst the later
breeders on the tundra are not there at all. The following
birds are all summer migrants to the tundra, but were not
seen passing through Ust-Zylma during migration : —

Yellow-headed Wagtail.
Arctic Tern.
Siberian Pipit.
Eed-necked Ph alar ope.
Long-tailed Duck.
Buffon's Skua.
Grey Plover.

Dunlin.

Kichardson's Skua.
Dotterel.
Sanderling.
Curlew Sandpiper.
Little Stint.

Most of these are very late-breeding birds, but why they
should breed late, or for what cause they seem to choose a
different line of migration, seems at present inexplicable.
Before a conclusion can be arrived at, many more facts must
be collected. The field of ornithological research is one in
which any amount of work may be advantageously done,

CHAP. XXIII.

CONCLUSION.

303

and possibly the perusal of the present short narrative may
help to arouse the enthusiasm of other adventurous orni-
thologists, and induce them to take up the running where
we have left it off.

OUR HEADQUARTERS AT UST-ZYLMA.

A MAP

SHEWING

EL SEEBOHMS ROUTE

to the
PETCHORA RIVER,

Scale o

Authors Rcmt& is shewn, thtt.

Stanford.? G&ograpmEstab.

( 3°5 )

INDEX.

AGE.

CEREMONY.

Age, the mammoth, 248.
Alexievka, arrival at, 173, 264.
, description of, 174.

— , island of, 175.

— , arrival of Triad at, 264.
Angliski Russ, 11.
Archangel, arrival at, 14.

-, city of, 15.

, prices at, 16.

, weather at, 21.

, birds at, 21.

Arctic willow-warbler, 159.

circle, 164.

— tern, 163.
Arrival of mosquitoes, 134.

B.

Bad roads, 25, 58.
Bath, Russian, 213.
Bear, tracks of, 89.

, saddle of, 89.

Bewick's swan, 2, 195, 214.
Bird, mocking-, the Swedish, 127.
Birds, 53, 58, 61, 67, 89, 90, 100, 115,

126, 138, 151, 155, 157, 168, 192,

264, 266, 271.

— en route, 13.

— ' eggs, 154, 156.

, hibernation of, 242.

, migration of, 243.

Birds, new, 117, 138.

resting on migration, 129.

, Samoyede names for, 19.

— , scarcity of, 41, 49.
, sea-, 292.

— seen on the tundra, 180, 183.
Bird-life in the forest, 107.
Bird's-nest, our first, 61.
Black-cock, 9, 162.
Black scoters, 132, 230.
Boat, dragging across ice, 111.

, our, 155.

, various means of propelling, 189.

Bohemian waxwings, 9, 144.
Bolshanivagorskia, 32.
Brambling, 120.
Buffon's skua, flocks of, 201.
Bullfinch, northern, 37.

, scarlet, 153.

Bullfinches, 14, 21.
Bunting, Lapland, 102.
, little, 132.

, reed, 96.

, snow, 27, 28, 29, 50, 79.

Buzzard, rough-legged, 160.

Cachets, 94.

Capercailzie, 9, 27, 59.

Captains Arendt and Engel, 48.

Castrdn, 4.

Ceremony of blessing the steamer, 133.

306

CEREMONY.

INDEX.

GOOSE.

Ceremony, marriage, 85.
Chiefs, election of, 20.
Chiff-chaff, the Siberian, 116.
Chooms, 72.
Circumpolar birds, 296.
Commerce, decline of, 16.
Commune, the, 86.
Copenhagen, 292.
Costumes of peasants, 113.
Crane, common, 120.
Crossbill, 14.

, common, 27.

, white-winged, 21.

Crosses, Greek, 35.

Crow, hooded, 9, 13, 14, 21, 27, 49.

Cuckoo, 140.

Curlew sandpiper, 2, 233.

D.

Dates of migration, 301.
Delta, the, 167.

, visit to two islands in the, 192.

Departure for home, 288.
Diver, black-throated, 150.

, red-throated, 160.

Dogs, 67.
Dotterel, 190.
Double snipe, 169.
Drunkenness, 60, 114.
Duck, golden-eyed, 106, 149.
— , long-tailed, 171, 266.

, pin-tailed, 106.

, scaup, 159.

, shoveller, 106.

• shooting, 104.

, tufted, 167.

Ducks, 26.
Dunlin, 180, 228.
Dvoinik, 231, 265.

Eagle, golden, 138.
, white-tailed, 59.

Easter-eve, 60.
Eggs, 156, 183.

, blowing, 184.

, Bewick's swan's, 214.

, grey plover's, 201, 205, 220, 223.

, magpie's, 92.

, omelette of grey plover's, 183.

, scaup's, 205.

, smew's, 157.

England, news from, 198.

Exile, Polish, 28.

Eyrie of peregrine falcon, 190.

F.

Falcon, peregrine, 93, 190, 210.
Feodor sent in quest of swan's skin, 213.

, return of, 214.

Fieldfare, 102, 142.
Field-work, 115.
First rain, 90.
Flowers, beautiful, 288.
Foraging party, a, 285.
Forest, bird-life in the, 107.

scenery, 137.

, the silent, 95.

Forests, 26.

Frost, cessation of, 89.

Funeral rites, 76.

G.

Game, 9, 16, 80.

Geese, a march of, on the tundra, 282.

Glaucous gull, 227.

Godwit, bar-tailed, 285.

Golden eagle, 138.

plover, eggs of the, 187.

Golden-eyes, 106.

Golievski Islands, trip to, 226.

Goosander, 150.

Goose, bean, 96.

, black, 19.

GOSHAWK.

INDEX.

MARRIAGE.

307

Goshawk, 161.
Grave, an old, 282.
Grey plover, 180, 181.

— , eggs of the, 201.
— nests, 201, 205. 220, 223.
Greek crosses, 35.
Greenshank, 107.
Grosbeak, pine, 14, 119.
Grouse, black, 9, 162.
, hazel, 9, 80.

, willow, 9, 14, 19, 154.

Gull, common, 99.

, glaucous, 227.

, great black-backed, 171.

, Siberian herring-, 90.

Gulls, 98.

— perching in trees, 108.
, species new to Europe, 99.

II.

Habariki, trips to, 63, 136.

— , sail to, 155.
Hard fare, 292.
Hawfinch, 21.
Heligoland, 249.

— , migration on, 257.
, ornithologists of, 249.

— , throstle-bushes at, 253.

— , variety of birds' at, 250.

— , wind and weather at, 253.
Hen-Harrier,^ 1.
Hobby, 139. "
Hoffmansegg, 4.
Holidays, 114.
Home, departure for, 288.
Horses, modes of yoking, 12.
House-building, 115.

Ice, dragging boats across, 111.
— , final break up of, 112.

Ice, Petchora free from, 131.

Ino, the, 265.

Inokentia, Father, 17.

Insect-life, 248.

Islands, visit to two, in the delta, 192.

J.

Jackdaws, 9, 13, 21, 29, 79.
Jay, Siberian, 27, 36, 138.
Journey from London to St. Peters-
burg, 7.

K.

Keyserling, 4.
Knot, 2.

Kotzoff, Peter, 17.
Kuloi river, 26.
Kuya, trip to, 262.

Land, tenure of, 86.
Lapland, birds of, 3.

bunting, 187.

, nest of, 180.

Lark, shore, 89.
L'autre cote, 61.
Letters of introduction, 6.
Little stint, 2, 232, 239.

, our first nest of, 267.

Living, cheapness of, 16.
London to St. Petersburg, 7.
Long-tailed duck, nest of, 266,

M.

Magpie, 14, 21, 27, 67.
Mammoth age, 247.
Manager, the Company's, 238.
-, we win over, 264.

Marriage ceremony, 85.

308

MARTIN.

INDEX.

PIPIT.

Martin, sand, 156.
May-day, 79.
Mealy redpole, 51.
Merganser, red-breasted, 188.
Merlin, 82.
Mezen, 29.

, departure from, 29.

, river, 30.

Midnight on the tundra, 211.
Migrants, stray, 256.
Migration of birds, 239.

, birds resting on, 129.

— by sight, 254.
— , lines of, 248.

, order of, 254.

, origin of, 245.

on Heligoland, 257.

-, other facts on, 258.

Migratory instincts, 258.
Mocking-bird, the Swedish, 127.
Moscow to Vologda, 9.
Mosquito-veils, 215.
Mosquitoes, 134, 210.

N.

Nest of grey plover, 181, 183.

— Lapland bunting, 180.

— little stint, 267, 281.

— long-tailed duck, 266.

— Petchora pipit, 185.

— skuas, watching for, 204.

— velvet scoter, 211.
Nests and eggs, 176.

, examination of, 194.

, various, 187, 191.

New birds, 117.
Nomad life, 55.
Northern bullfinches, 37.

0.

Officials, hospitality of, 47.
Old Believers, 45.

Old Believers, crosses of, 46.

, prejudices of, 114

-, superstitions of, 45

Omelette of grey plovers' eggs, 183.
Ornaments, peasants' love for, 35.
Osprey, 138.
Our quarters, 44.
Our servants, 219.
Outfit, 5.

Overhauling our plunder, 236.
Owl, eagle, 84.
— , Lapp, 19.

, short-eared, 118.

, snowy, 19, 91, 280.

, Ural, 19.

Oystercatcher, 123.

P.

Palaearctic birds, 297.
Party, a foraging, 285.
Peasants, costumes of, 113.
, curiosity of, 34.

— , employments and amusements

of, 35.

— ' love for ornaments, 35.

Pelzam, 4.

Peregrine falcon, 93, 190, 210.

Petchora, banks of, 44, 95.

, break up of ice on, 111.

free from ice, 131.

— , first view of, 38.

— pipit, 165, 185.
, sail down the, 158.

— , voyages to the, in seventeenth
century, 4.
Phalaropes, 276.

, change of plumage in, 278.

, red-necked, 167.

Pigeons, 21.
Pinega river, 26.
Piottuch, 20.

, his accident, 31.

Pipit, meadow, 101, 108.

PIPIT.

INDEX.

SHORT COMMONS.

309

Pipit, red-throated, 101.
, nests of, 180, 232.

-, Siberian, 165.
-, tree, 116.

Pizhma, river, 31.
Plover, golden, 100.
, eggs of, 187.

-, grey, 2, 201.

, nests of, 201, 205, 220,

223.

-, little ringed, 154.
-, ringed, 122.

Plunder, overhauling our, 236.
Polish exile, 28.

prejudices, 34.

Postal service in winter and summer, 24.

Post-houses, 11.

Prahms, the, 263.

Prejudices of Old Believers, 114.

Prey, birds of, 82.

Processions, religious, 113.

Provisions, prices of, 121.

' Purchas his Pilgrimes,' 3.

Pustazursk, arrival at, 169.

Pytkoff mountains, 231.

R.

Rae's 'Land of the North Wind,' 18.

Rafts, timber, 174.

Railway carriages, mode of heating, 8.

Rain, first, 90.

Raven, 14, 21, 27, 53.

Redpole, mealy, 21, 51.

Redshank, spotted, 147.

Redstart, 91.

Red-throated pipit, 180, 232.

Redwing, 102, 142.

Reindeer, 55.

, diseases of, 56.

— harness, 68.
)ing, 65.

Results of the trip, 293.
Religion, 76.

Religious procession, 113.

Richardson's skua, 188.

River, wrong bank of the, 110.

Rivers Pinega and Kuloi, 26.

Roads, 12, 58.

Robinson Crusoe, doing, in a wrecked

ship, 265.
Rook, 13, 103.
Rosposki, travelling in, 263.
Ruff, 131.
Russian bath, 213.

— • holiday, 113.

superstitions, 286.

S.

Samovar, the, 11.
Samoyede names, 19, 125.

sledges, 68.

songs, 19.

Samoyedes, 18, 27, 36, 54, 57, 64, 73,
74, 76.

, election of chiefs, 20.

, ignorance of doctors an«l

medicinal plants, 20.
Sanderlings, 2, 228.
Sandpiper, 19.

, common, 158.

— , curlew, 2, 233.

• , Terek, 148.

— , wood, 122, 148.
Scaup's eggs, 205.
Scenery, 13, 25, 30.
— , forest, 137.
Schrenck, 4.
Scoter, black, 132.

, nest of, 203.

, velvet, 211.

Scoters, 231.
Sea-birds, 292.
Sedge-warbler, 160.
Servants, our, 219.
Shooting, 104.

parties, 47.

Short commons, on, 284.

3io

SHOVELLER.

INDEX.

VILLAGES.

Shoveller duck, 106.
Siberian chiff-chaff, 116.

— jay, 36.
Skua, Buffon's, 172, 177, 201.

, Richardson's, 188.

, search for nest of, 204.

Skylark, 117, 258.

Sledging from Vologda to Archangel, 10.

Smew, 150.

, eggs of, 157.

Snipe, common, 147.
, great, 146, 169.

in trees, 157.

Snow, 60.

plains, 26.

shoes, 48.

Snow-bunting, 37, 50.

Snowy owl, 19, 91, 280.

Song, a new, 131.

Sparrow, common, 14, 20, 27, 104.

— , tree, 14, 20, 27, 104.
Sparrow-hawk, 129.
Stanavialachta, tundra near, 189.

— , visit to, 208.
Steamer, ceremony of blessing the, 133.

, return of the, 284.

Stint, little, 2, 232, 239, 267, 281.
, eggs of the, 272.

— , Temminck's, 122, 130.
Stonechat, Siberian, 117.
St. Petersburg, frozen market at, 8.
Summer, preparations for, 87.
Sunset and sunrise, 270.
Superstitions, Russian, 286.
Swallow, barn, 122.
Swamps, willow, 164.
Swan, Bewick's, 2, 195, 214.
, skin of, 213.

T.

Tarns in the woods, 138.
Teal, 101.
Tenure of land, 86.

Terek sandpiper, 148.
Tern, Arctic, 163.
Thunder-storm, 290.
Timber rafts, 175.
Time, confusion of, 279.
Titmouse, Lapp, 144.

, marsh, 14, 21, 61.

Toads, 129.

Traffic, 13.

Trees, snipe in, 157.

Triad, the, 264, 288.

Trip, results of the, 294.

Tundra, 55, 170, 267, 276.

— , birds seen on the, 180, 183.

, march of geese on, 282. '

, midnight on, 210.

, near Stanavialachta, 189.

the Yooshina river, 186.

-, sailing for the, 177.
-, vegetation of the, 179.

U.

Urnskia, 36, 58.

Unknown breeding-grounds, 1.

Ust-Zylma, 38.

, churches of, 43.

, farms of, 43.

, fire at, 85.

, houses of, 41.

, last days at, 155.

-, manure of, 42.

, population of, 43.

, return to, 152.

, streets of, 40, 43.

, Sunday at, 84.

V.

Velvet scoter, nest of the, 211.
Verakin, M., 9.
Via diabolica, the, 32.
Villages, 34.

VISKI.

INDEX.

ZYRIANI.

Viski, 166.

Vocabulary, Samoyede, 19.
Vologda, 9.
, sledging from, to Archangel,

10.

W.

Waders, arrival of, 121.
Wagtail, green, 103.

, white, 91.

, yellow-headed, 141.

Warbler, Arctic willow, 159.

, blue-throated, 127.

, reed, 245.

, sedge, 160.

, Transvaal, 246.

, willow, 108.

, yellow-browed, 256.

Waterspout, 291.

Wasilkova, excursion to, 195.

Waxwing, 9, 21, 144.

Weather, 13, 30, 88, 138, 284.

Wedding of the engineer's son, 152.

Wheatear, 116.

Whimbrel, 103.

White whales, shoal of, 227.

Widgeon, 107, 149.

Wild goose chase, a, 93.
Willow grouse, abundance of, 154, 191.
swamps, 164.

Winter, 53.

, return of, 92.

Woodpecker, black, 97.

— , great spotted, 14, 27.
— , lesser spotted, 21.

, Siberian lesser spotted, 109.

— , three-toed, 109.
Wood'', rambles in the, 134.

, tarns in the, 138.

Wolley, John, 2.

Y.

Yellow-hammer, 14, 52.
Yellow-headed wagtail, 141.
Yemschik, 10.

Yoking horses, modes of, 12.
Yooshina river, tundra near the, 186.

Zylma river, break up of ice on the, 110.
Zyriani, 206.

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- WILD WALES : its People, Language, and Scenery.
Post 8vo. 5s.

Romano Lavo-Lil ; Word-Book of the Romany, or

THE STUARTS.
SHAKSPEARE.
STUDY OF HISTORY

HISTOKY.
ANCIENT LONDON.

AND ENGLISH

English Gypsy Language; with Specimens of their Poetry, and an
account of certain Gypsyries. Post 8vo. 10*. 6cZ.

BOSWELL'S Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Including the
Tour to the Hebrides. Edited by Mr. CROKER. Seventh Edition.
Portraits. 1 vol. Medium 8vo. 12s.

BRACE (C. L.). Manual of Ethnology ; or the Races of the Old

World. Post 8vo. 6s.
BREWER (Rev. J. S.). English Studies, or Essays on English

History and Literature. 8vo. 14s. Contents : -
NEW SOURCES OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
GREEN'S SHORT HISTOKY OF THE

ENGLISH PEOPLE.
ROYAL SUPREMACY.
HATFIELD HOUSE.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION REPORTS. 8vo.

York and Oxford, 1831-32, 13s. 6d.
Cambridge, 1833, 12s.
Edinburgh, 1834, 15s.
Dublin, 1835, 13s. 6d.
Bristol, 1836, 12s.
Liverpool, 1837. 16s. Qd.
Newcastle, 1838, 15s.
Birmingham, 1839, 13s. Sd.
Glasgow, 1840, 15s.
Plymouth, 1841, 13s. 6d.
Manchester, 1842, 10s. Qd.
Cork, 1843, 12s.
York, 1844, 20s.
Cambridge, 1845, 12f.
Southampton, 1846, 15s.
Oxford, 1847, 18s.
Swansea, 1848, 9s.
Birmingham, 1849, 10s.
Edinburgh, 1850, 15s.
Ipswich, 1851, 16s. 6d.
Belfast, 1S52, 15s.

Hull, 1853, 10s. Qd.
Liverpool, 1&54, 18s.
Glasgow, 1855. 15s.
Cheltenham, 1856, 18*.

Dublin, 1857, 15s.
Leeds. 1858, 20*.
Aberdeen, 1859, 15s.
Oxford, 1860, 25s.
Manchester, 1861, 15s.
Cambridge, 1862, 2Us.
Newcastle, 1863, 25s.
Bath, 1864, 18s.
Birmingham, 1865, 2f s.
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Bristol, 1875, 25s.

Plymouth, Is/V^i*.
Dublin, 1878, 24s.
Sheffield, 1879, 24s.
Swansea, 1880, 24s.

LIST OF WORKS

BUUGSCH (PROFESSOR). A History of Egypt, under the
Pharaohs. Derived entirely from Monuments, with a Memoir on the
Exodus of the Israelites. Translated by PHILIP SMITH, B.A. 2nd
Edition. Maps. 2 vols. 8vo. 82*.

BUNBURY (E. H.). A History of Ancient Geography, among the

Greeks and Romans, from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman
Empire. With Index and 20 Maps. 2 Vols. 8vo. 42s.

BURBIDGE (F. W.). The Gardens of the Sun: or A Naturalist's

Journal on the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps of Borneo and
the Sulu Archipelago. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 14s.

BURCKHARDT'S Cicerone ; or Art Guide to Painting in Italy.

Translated from the German by MRS. A, OLOUGH. New Edition, revised

byJ. A. CROWE. PostSvo. 6*.
BURN (CoL.). Dictionary of Naval and Military Technical

Terms, English and French — French and English. Crown 8vo. 15s.

BUTTMANN'S Lexilogus ; a Critical Examination of the
Meaning of numerous Greek Words, chiefly in Homer and Hesiod.
By Rev. J. R. FISHLAKE. 8vo. 12s.

BUXTON (CHARLES). Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton,

Bart. Portrait. 8vo. 16s. Popular Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5s.

, (SYDNEY C.). A Handbook to the Political Questions

of the Day ; with the Arguments on Either Side. 8vo. 5s.

BYLES (SiR JOHN). Foundations of Religion in the Mind and

Heart of Man. Post 8vo. 65.
BYRON'S (LORD) LIFE AND WORKS :—

LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS. By THOMAS MOOEE. Cabinet

Edition. Plates. 6 Vols. Fcap.8vo. 18*.; or One Volume, Portraits.

Royal 8vo., 7*. 6d.

LIFE AND POETICAL WORKS. Popular Edition. Portraits.

2 vols. Royal 8vo. 15s.

POETICAL WORKS. Library Edition. Portrait. 6VoK 8vo. 45s.
POETICAL WORKS. Cabinet Edition. Plates. 10 Vole. 12mo. 80s.
POETICAL WORKS. Pocket Ed. 8 Yols. 16mo. In a case. 21s.
POETICAL WORKS. Popular Edition. Plates. Royal 8vo. 7s. Qd.
POETICAL WORKS. Pearl Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s. Qd.
CHILDE HAROLD. With 80 Engravings. Crown 8vo. 12s.
CIIILDE HAROLD. 16mo. 2s. Qd.
CHILDE HAROLD. Vignettes. 16mo. Is.
CHILDE HAROLD. Portrait. 16mo. Qd.
TALES AND POEMS. 16mo. 2s. Qd.
MISCELLANEOUS. 2 Vols. 16mo. 5s.
DRAMAS AND PLAYS. 2 Vols. 16mo. 5s.
DON JTJAN AND BEPPO. 2 Vols. 16mo. 6s.
••BEAUTIES. Poetry and Prose. Portrait. Fcap. 8vo. 3s. Qd.
CAMPBELL (LORD). Life : Based on his Autobiography, with
selections from Journals, and Correspondence. Edited by Mrs. t Hard-
castle. Portrait. 2 Vols. 8vo. 30s.

- Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great
Seal of England. From the Earliest Times to the Death of Lord Eldon
in 1838. 10 Vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. each.

- Chief Justices of England. From the Norman
Conquest to the Death of LordTenterden. 4 Vols. Crown 8vo. 6s. each.

(THOS.) Essay on English Poetry. With Short
Lives of the British Poets. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d.

PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY.

CARNARVON (LORD). Portugal, 'Gallicia, and the Basque

Provinces. Post Svo. 3s. 6d.

— The Agamemnon : Translated from ^Eschylus.
Sm. 8vo. 6s.

CARNOTA (CONDE DA). Memoirs of the Life and Eventful Career

of F.M. the Dnke of Saldanha ; Soldier and Sfatesman. With

Selections from his Correspondence. 2 Vols. bvo. 32s.

CART WRIGHT (W. C.). The Jesuits: their Constitution and

Teaching. An Historical Sketch. 8vo. 9s.

CAVALCASELLE'S WORKS. [See CROWE.]

CESNOLA (GBN.). Cyprus; its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Tern-
pies, liesearches and Excavations d uring Ten Years' Residence in that
Island. With 400 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 50*.

CHILD (CHAPLIN). Benedicite ; or, Song of the Three Children ;
being Illustrations of the Power, Beneficence, and Design manifested
by the Creator in his Works. Post 8vo. 6.«.

CHISHOLM (Mrs.). Perils of the Polar Seas; True Stories of
Arctic Discovery and Adventure. Illustrations. Post 8vo. 6*.

CHURTON (ARCHDEACON). Poetical Remains, Translations and
Imitations. Portrait. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

CLASSIC PREACHERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

Being Lectures delivered at St. James', Westminster, in 1877-8.
By Eminent Divines. With Introduction by J. E. Kempe. 2 Vols.
Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. each.

CLI VE'S (LORD) Life. By REV. G. R. GLEIO. Post 8vo. 3s. Qd.

CLODE (C. M.). Military Forces of the Crown ; their Administra-
tion and Government. 2 Vols. Svo. 21s. each.
- Administration of Justice under Military and Martial
Law, as applicable to the Army, Navy, Marine, and Auxiliary Forces.
Svo. 12s.

COLERIDGE'S (SAMUEL TAYLOR) Table-Talk. Portrait. 12mo. 3s. Qd.

COLONIAL LIBRARY. [See Home and Colonial Library.]

COMPANIONS FOR THE DEVOUT LIFE. Lectures on well-
known Devotional Works. By Eminent Divines. With Preface by
J. E. Kempe, M. A. Crown Svo. 6s.

DE IMI TATIONE CHRISTI.

PENSEES OF BLAISE PASCAL.

S. FRANCOIS DE SALES.

BAXTKR'S SAINTS' REST.

S. AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSIONS.

JEKBMY TAYLOR'S HOLY LIVING AND

THEOLOOIA GERMANI.CA.
F£NELON'S (EUVKES SPIRITUELLES.
ANDEKWES' DEVOTIONS.
CHRISTIAN YEAE.
PARADISE LOST.
PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

DYING. ! PRAYER BOOK.

CONVOCATION PRAYER-BOOK. (See Prayer-Book.)
COOKE (E. W.). Leaves from my Sketch-Book. Being a Selec-
tion from Sketches made during many Tours. With Descriptive Text.
50 Plates. 2 Vela. Small folio. 31s. 6ot. each.

COOKERY (MODERN DOMESTIC). Founded on Principles of Economy
and Practical Knowledge. By a Lady. Woodcuts. Fcap. Svo. 6*.

CRABBE (REV. GEORGE). Life & Poetical Works. Illustrations.

Royal Svo. 7s.
CRIPPS (WILFRED). Old English Plate : Ecclesiastical, Decorative,

and Domestic, its Makers and Marks. With a Complete Table of Date
Letters, &c. New Edition. With 70 Illustrations. Medium Svo. 16s.

Old French Plate; Furnishing Tables of the Paris Date

Letters, and Facbimilesot Other Marks. With Illustrations. Svo. 8».6cf.

I

LIST OF WORKS

CROKER (J. W.). Progressive Geography for Children.

18mo. ls.6d.
Boswell's Life of Johnson. Including the Tour to the

Hebrides. Seventh Edition. Portraits. 8vo. 12s.
Historical Essay on the Guillotine. Fcap. 8vo. Is.

CROWE AND CAVALCASELLE. Lives of the Early Flemish

Painters. Woodcuts. Post 8vo, 7*. 6</.; or Large Paper, 8vo, 15s.
History of Painting in North Italy, from 14th to

16th Century. With Illustrations. 2 Voln. 8vo. 42s.

Life and Times of Titian, with some Account of his

Family, chiefly from new and unpublished records. With Portrait and
Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo.

GUMMING (R. GORDON). Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the

Far Interior of South Africa. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 6s.
CUNYNGHAME (SiE ARTHUR). Travels in the Eastern Caucasus,

on Ihe Caspian and Black Seas, in Daghestan and the Frontiers of

Persia and Turkey. Illustrations. 8vo. 18s.
CURTIUS' (PROFESSOR) Student's Greek Grammar, for the Upper

Forms. Edited by DR. WM. SMITH. Post 8vo. 6s.
Elucidations of the above Grammar. Translated by

EVELYN ABBOT. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

— Smaller Greek Grammar for the Middle and Lower

Forms. Abridged from the larger work. 12mo. 3s. 6<L

Accidence of the Greek Language. Extracted from

the above work. 12mo. 2s. 6d.

- Principles of Greek Etymology. Translated by A. S.
WILKINS, M.A., and E. B. ENGLAND, M.A. 2 vols. 8vo. 15*. each.
The Greek Verb, its Structure and Development.

Translated by A. S. WILKINS, M,A., ani E. B. ENGLAND, M.A.
8vo. 18s.

CURZON (HoN. ROBERT). Visits to the Monasteries of the Levant.

Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

CUST (GENERAL). Warriors of the 17th Century— The Thirty Years'
War. 2 Vols. 16s. Civil Wars of France and England. 2 Vols. 16s.
Commanders of Fleets and Armies. 2 Vols. 18s.

- Annals of the Wars — 18th & 19th Century.
With Maps. 9 Vols. Post 8vo. 5s. each.

DAVY (SiR HUMPHRY). Consolations in Travel; or, Last Days
of a Philosopher. Woodcuts. Fcap. 8vo. 8s. 6d.

- Salmonia; or, Days of Fly Fishing. Woodcuts.

Fcap.Svo. 3s. 6d.

DE COSSON (E. A.). The Cradle of the Blue Nile ; a Journey

through Abyssinia and Soudan, and a Residence at the Court of King
John of Ethiopia. Map and Illustrations. 2 vols. PostSvo. 21s.
DENNIS (GEORGE). The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. A
new Edition, revised, recording all the latest Discoveries. With 20
Plans and 200 Illustrations. 2 vols. Medium 8vo. 42s.

DENT (EMMA). Annals of Winchcombe and Sudeley. With 120

Portraits, Plates and Woodcuts. 4to. 42s.
DERBY (EARL OP). Iliad of Homer rendered into English

Blank Verse. With Portrait. 2 Vols. PostSvo. 10«.

PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY.

DARWIN'S (CHARLES) WORKS:—

JOURNAL OP A NATURALIST DURING A VOYAGE ROUND THE
WOBLD. Crown 8vo. 9*.

ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OP NATURAL SELECTION; or, the
Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Woodcuts.
Crown 8vo. 7*. 6d.

VARIATION OP ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION.
Woodcuts. 2 Vols. Crown 8vo. 18*.

DESCENT OP MAN, AND SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.

Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 9s.

EXPRESSIONS OP THE EMOTIONS IN MAN AND ANIMALS. With

Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 12.*.

VARIOUS CONTRIVANCES BY \VHICH ORCHIDS ARE FERTILIZED
BY INSECTS. Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 9s.

MOVEMENTS AND HABITS OP CLIMBING PLANTS. Woodcuts,

Crown 8vo. 6s.

INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS. Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 14s.

EFFECTS OF CROSS AND SELF-FERTILIZATION IN THE VEGETABLE
KINGDOM. Crown 8vo. 12s.

DIFFERENT FORMS OP FLOWERS ON PLANTS OP THE SAME

SPKCIES. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.
POWER OP MOVEMENT IN PLANTS. Woodcuts. Cr. 8vo. 15s.

THE FORMATION OF VEGETABLE MOULD THROUGH THE ACTION OP
WORMS; with Observations on their Habits. Post 8vo.

LIFE OP ERASMUS DARWIN. With a Study of his Works by

ERNEST KBAUSE. Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

FACTS AND ARGUMENTS FOR DARWIN. By FRITZ MULLER.
Translated by \V. S. DALLAS. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 6s.

DERRY (BISHOP OF). Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Chris-
tianity. The Bampton Lectures for 1S76. 8vo. 14s.

DEUTSCH (EMANUEL). Talmud, Islam, The Targums and other
Literary Remains. With a brief Memoir. 8vo. 12s.

DILKE (SiR C. W.). Papers of a Critic. Selected from the
Writings of the late CHAS. WENTWOKTH DILKE. With a Biographi-
cal Sketch. 2 Vols. 8vo. 24s.

DOG-BREAKING. [See HUTCHINSON.]

DOMESTIC MODERN COOKERY. Founded on Principles of

Economy and Practical Knowledge, and adapted for Private Families.
Woodcuts. Fcap. 8vo. 5s.

DOUGLAS'S (SiR HOWARD) Theory and Practice of Gunnery.

Plates. 8vo. 21s.
(WM.) Horse-Shoeing; As it Is, and As it Should be.

Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

DRAKE'S (SiR FRANCIS) Life, Voyages, and Exploits, by Sea and

Land. By JOHN BABBOW. Post 8vo. 2s.
DRINKWATER (JOHN). History of the Siege of Gibraltar,

1779-1783. With a Description and Account of that Garrison from the

Earliest Periods. Post 8vo. 2s.

10 LIST OF WORKS

DUCANGE'S MEDIAEVAL LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. Ee-arranged
and Edited, in accordance with the modern Science of Philology, by Rev.
E. A. DAYMAN and J. H. HESSELS. Small 4to. [In f reparation.

DU CHAILLU (PAUL B.). The Land of the Midnight Sun ; Summer
and Winter Journeys through Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Northern
Finland, with Descriptions of the Inner Lite of the People, Iheir
Manners and Customs, the Primitive Antiquities, &c., &c. With Map
and 235 Illustrations. 2 Vols. 8vo.

EQUATORIAL AFRICA, with Accounts of the

Gorilla, the Nest-building Ape, Chimpanzee, Crocodile, <fcc. Illus-
trations. 8vo. 21s.

- Journey to Ashango Land; and Further Pene-
tration into Equatorial Africa. Illustrations. 8vo. 21s.
DUFFERIN (LORD). Letters from High Latitudes; a Yacht
Voyage to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen. Woodcuts. Post
8vo. 7s. 6d.

- Speeches and Addresses, Political and Literary,
delivered in the House of Lords, in Canada, and elsewhere. 8vo.

[In the Frets.

DUNCAN (MAJOR). History of the Rojal Artillery. Com-
piled from the Original Records. Portraits. 2 Vols. 8vo. 18s.

• English in Spain; or, The Story of the War of Suc-

cession, 1834-1840. Compiled from the Reports of the British Com-
missioners. With Illustrations. 8vo. Ids.

DURER (ALBERT) ; his Life, with a History of his Art. By DE.
TIIAUSING, Keeper of Archduke Albert's Art Collection at Vienna.
Translated from the German. With Portrait and Illustrations. 2 vols.
Medium 8vo.

EASTLAKE (SiR CHARLES). Contributions to the Literature of

the Fine Arts. With Memoir of the Author, and Selections from hia
Correspondence. By LADY EASTLAKE. 2 Vols. 8vo. 24s.

EDWARDS (W. H.). Voyage up the River Amazon, including a

Visit to Para. Post 8vo. 2s.
ELDON'S (LORD) Public and Private Life, with Selections from

his Diaries, &c. By HORACE Twiss. Portrait. 2 Vols. PostSvo. 21s.
ELGIN (LORD). Letters and Journals. Edited by THEODORK

WALROND. With Preface by Dean Stanley, bvo. 14s.

ELLESMERE (LORD). Two Sieges of Vienna by the Turks.

Translated from the German. Post 8vo. 2s
ELLIS (W.). Madagascar Revisited. The Persecutions and

Heroic Sufferings of the Native Christians. Illustrations. 8vo. 16s.

Memoir. By His SON. With his Character and
Work. By REV. HENRY ALLON, D.D. Portrait. Svo. 10s. 6d.
— (ROBINSON) Poems and Fragments of Catullus. 16mo. 5s.
ELPHINSTONE (Ho». MOUNTSTUART). History of India— the
Hindoo and Mahomedan Periods. Edited by PROFESSOR COWELL.
Map. Svo. 18*.

— (H. W.). Patterns for Turning ; Comprising
Elliptical and other Figures cut on the Lathe without the use of any
Ornamental Chuck. "With 70 Illustrations. Small 4to. 15*.

ELTON (CAW.) and H. B. COTTERILL. Adventures and

Discoveries Among the Lakes and Mountains of Eastern and Central
Africa. With Map and Illustrations. 8vo. 21*.

ENGLAND. [See ARTHUR, CROKER, HUME, MARK.HAM, SMITH,

and STANHOPE.]
ESSATS ON CATHEDRALS. Edited, with an Introduction.

By DEAN Howsos. Svo. 12s.

PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 11

FERGUSSON (JAMES). History of Architecture in all Countries

from the Earliest Times. With 1.600 Illustrations. 4 Vols. Medium 8vo.
I. & II. Ancient and Mediaeval. 63s. "K
III. Indian & Eastern. 42s. IV. Modern. 31s. Qd.

Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries; their Age

and Uses. With 230 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 24s.

Holy Sepulchre and the Temple at Jerusalem.

Woodcuts. 8vo. Is. Qd.

Temples of the Jews and other buildings in

the Haram Area at Jerusalem. With Illustrations. 4to. 42s.
FLEMING (PROFESSOR). Student's Manual of Moral Philosophy.
With Quotations and References. Post 8vo. 7s. Qd.

FLOWER GARDEN. By KEY. THOS. JAMES. Fcap. 8vo. Is.
FORBES (CAPT.) British Burma and its People; Native

Manners, Customs, and Religion. Cr. 8vo. 10s. Qd.
FORD (RICHARD). Gatherings from Spain. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d.
FORSTER (JOHN). The Early Life of Jonathan Swift. 1667-1711.

With Portrait. Svo. 15s.

FORSYTH (WILLIAM). Hortensius; an Historical Essay on the

Office and Duties of an Advocate. Illustrations. 8vo. 7s. Qd.

- Novels and Novelists of the 18th Century, in
Illustration of the Manners and Morals of the Age. Post 8vo. 10s. Qd.

FRANCE (HISTORY OP). [See JERVIS— MARKHAM — SMITH — STU-

DEJfTS' — TOCQUEVILLE.]

FRENCH IN ALGIERS; The Soldier of the Foreign Legion—
and the Prisoners of Abd-el-Kadir. Translated by Lady DUFF GOBDON.
Post 8vo. 2s.

FRERB (SiR BARTLE). Indian Missions. Small 8vo. 2s. 6 d.

- Eastern Africa as a Field for Missionary Labour. With
Map. Crown Svo. 5s.

- Bengal Famine. How it will be Met and How to

Prevent Future Famines in India. With Maps. Crown Svo. 5s.
(M.). Old Deccan Days, or Hindoo Fairy Legends

current in Southern India, with Introduction by Sir BARTLE FBERE.

With 50 Illustrations. Post Svo. 7s. Qd.

GALTON (P.). Art of Travel ; or, Hints on the Shifts and Con-
trivances available in Wild Countries. Woodcuts. Post Svo. 7s. Qd.
GEOGRAPHY. [See BUNBDRT— CROKER — RICHARDSON — SMITH

— STUDKNTS'.J

GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY'S JOURNAL. (Published Yearly.)
GEORGE (ERNEST). The Mosel ; a Series of Twenty Etchings, with

Descriptive Letterpress. Imperial 4to. 42*.

Loire and South of France; a Series of Twenty

Etchings, with Descriptive Text. Folio. 42*.
GERMANY (HISTORY OF). [See MARSHAM.]
GIBBON (EDWARD). History of the Decline and Fall of the

Roman Empire. Edited by MILMAN, GUIZOT, and Dr. WM. SMITH.

Maps. 8 Vols. Svo. 60s.

— The Student's Edition ; an Epitome of the above

work, incorporating the Researches of Recent Commentators. By Dr.
WM. SMITH. Woodcuts. Post Svo. 7s. Qd.

GIFFARD (EDWARD). Deeds of Naval Daring ; or, Anecdotes of

the British Navy. Fcap. Svo. 3s. Qd.

12 LIST OP WORKS

GILL (CAPT. WM). The River of Golden Sand. Narrative
of a Journey through China to Burmah. With a Preface by Col. H.
Yule, C.B. Maps and Illustrations. 2 Vols. 8vo. 30*.

(MRS.). Six Months in Ascension. An Unscientific Ac-
count of a Scientific Expedition. Map. Crown 8vo. 9s.
GLADSTONE (W. E.). Home and the Newest Fashions ia

Religion. Three Tracts. &vo. Is. 6d.

- Gleanings of Past Years, 1843-78. 7 vols. Sm*H
8vo. 2s. K>i. each. I. The Throne, the Prince Consort, the Cahiner, and
Constitution. II. Personal and Literary. III. HJKtorical and Specu-
lative. IV. Foreign. V. and VI. Ecclesiastical. VII. Miscellane MJS.
GLEIG (G. R.). Campaigns of the British Army at Washington
and New Orleans. Post 8vo. 2*.

- Story of the Battle of Waterloo. Post 8vo. 3s. Qd.

— Narrative of Sale's Brigade in Afghanistan. Post 8vo. 2s.

- Life of Lord Clive. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d.
Sir Thomas Munro. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d.

GLYNNE (SiR STEPHEN R.). Notes on the Churches of Kent.

With Preface by W. H. Gladstone, M.P. Illustrations. 8vo. 12s.
GOLDSMITH'S (OLIVER) Works. Edited with Notes by PETER

CUNNINGHAM. Vignettes. 4 Vols. 8vo. 80s.
GOMM (FIELD-MARSHAL SIR WM. M.), Commander-in-Chief in

India, Constable of the Tower, and Colonel of the Coldstream Guards.

His Letters and Journals. 1799 to 1315. Edited by F. C. Carr Goni'.u.

With Portrait. 8vo.

GORDON (SiR ALEX.). Sketches of German Life, and Scenes

from the War of Liberation. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d.

(LADY DUFK) Amber- Witch : A Trial for Witch-
craft. Post 8vo. 2s.

French in Algiers. 1. The Soldier of the Foreign
Legion. 2. The Prisoners of Abd-el-Kadir. Post 8vo. 2s.
GRAMMARS. [See CURTHTS ; HALL; HUTTON; KINO EDWARD;

LEATHES; MAETZNEB; MATTHIJE; SMITH.]

GREECE (HISTORY OP). [See GROTE— SMITH— STUDENTS'.]
GROTE'S (GEORGE) WORKS :—

HISTORY OF GREECE. From the Earliest Times to the close

of the generation contemporary with the Death of Alexander the Great.

Library Edition. Portrait, Maps, and Plans. 10 Vols. 8vo. 120s.

Cabinet Edition. Portrait and Plans. 12 Vols. Post 8vo. 6s. each.
PLATO, and other Companions of Socrates. 3 Vols. 8vo. 45s.
ARISTOTLE. With additional Essays. 8vo. 18s.
MINOR WORKS. Portrait. 8ro. 14s.
LETTERS ON SWITZERLAND IN 1847. 6s.
PERSONAL LIFE. Portrait. 8vo. 12s.

GROTE (MRS.). A Sketch. By LADY EASTLAKE. Crown 8vo. 6s.
HALL'S (T. D.) School Manual of English Grammar. With

Copious Exercises. 12mo. 3s. 6d.

- Manual of English Composition. With Copious Illustra-
tions and Practical Exercises. 12mo. 3s. 6d.

- Primary English Grammar for Elementary Schools.
Eased on the larger work. 16mo. Is.

Child's First Latin Book, comprising a full Practice of

Nouns, Pronouns, and Adjectives, with the Active Verbs. 16mo. 2s.

PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 13

HALLAM'S (HENRY) WORKS :—

THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Acces-
sion of Henry the Seventh to the Death of George the Second. Library
Edition, 3 Vols. 8vo. 30s. Cabinet Edition, 3 Vols. Post 8vo. 12a. Stu-
dent's Edition, Post 8vo. 7*. 6rf.

HISTORY OP EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. Library

Edition, 3 Vols. 8vo. 30s. Cabinet Edition, 3 Vols. Post 8vo. 12s.
Student's Edition, Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

LITERARY HISTORY OF EUROPE DURING THE 15in, 10TH, AND
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HALLAM'S (ARTHUR) Literary Remains; in Verse and Prose.

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HAMILTON" (GEN. SIR F. W.). History of the Grenadier Guards.

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(ANDREW). Rheinsberg : Memorials of Frederick the

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HART'S ARMY LIST. (Published Quarterly and Annually.)

HATCH (W. M.). The Moral Philosophy of Aristotle, con-
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EATHERLEY (LORD). The Continuity of Scripture, as Declared
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HAY (SiR J. H. DRUMMOND). Western Barbary, its Wild Tribes

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HEAD'S (SiR FRANCIS) WORKS :—

THK ROYAL ENGINEER. Illustrations. Svo. 12,?.
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Hymns adapted to the Church Service. 16mo. Is. 6d.

HERODOTUS. A New English Version. Edited, with Notes

and Essays, Historical, Ethnographical, and Geographical, by CANON

RAWLINSON, SIR H. RAWLINSON and SIE J. G. WILKINSON. Maps and

Woodcuts. 4 Vols. Svo. 48s.
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the Reigns of George III. and IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria.

Founded on his Letters and other Unpublished Documents. By his

son, Edward Herries, C.B. 2 vols. Svo. 24*.

HERSCHEL'S (CAROLINE) Memoir and Correspondence. By
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14 LIST OF WORKS

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SPAIN, Madrid, The Castiles, The Basque Provinces,

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18 LIST OP WORKS

HOLLWAY (J. G.). A Month in Norway. Fcap. 8vo. 2«.
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(THEODORE) Life. By J. G. LOCKHART. Fcap. 8vo. Is.

HOPE (A. J. BERESFORD). Worship in the Church of England.
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HUME (The Student's). A History of England, from the Inva-
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HUTCHINSON (GEN.). Dog Breaking, with Odds and Ends for

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HUTTON (H.E.). PrincipiaGrseca; an Introduction to the Study

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HYMNOLOGY, DICTIONARY OP. See Julian.
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1RBY AND MANGLES' Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and

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JAMESON (MRS.). Lives of the Early Italian Painters—

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JAPAN. [See BIRD, MOSSMAN, MODNSET, EKED.]

JENNINGS (Louis J.). Field Paths and Green Lanes in Surrey
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JESSE (EDWARD). Gleanings in Natural History. Fcp. 8vo. 3s. 6d.

JEX-BLAKE (REV. T. W.). Life in Faith: Sermons Preached

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JOHNSON'S (DR. SAM DEL) Life. By James Boswell. Including
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JULIAN (REV. JOHN J.). A Dictionary of Hymnology. A

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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 19

KERR (ROBERT). Small Country House. A Brief Practical

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KING EDWARD Vim's Latin Grammar. 12mo. Zs. 6d.

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KUGLER'S Handbook of Painting.— The Italian Schools. Re-
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Handbook of Painting. — The German, Flemish, and

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LANE (E. W.). Account of the Manners and Customs of Modern
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Life and Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Portraits.

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20 LIST OF WORKS

LIDDELL (DEAN). Student's History of Rome, from the earliest
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LISPINGS from LOW LATITUDES; or. the Journal of the Hon.
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Last Journals in Central Africa, from 1865 to
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Personal Life. From his unpublished Journals

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LIVINGSTON! A. Journal of Adventures in Exploring Lake

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YOUNG, R.N. Maps. PostSvo. 7s. 6d.
LIVONIAN TALES. By the Author of " Letters from the

Baltic." Post Svo. 2s.
LOCKHART (J. G.). Ancient Spanish Ballads. Historical and

Romantic. Translated, with Notes. Illustrations. Crowu Svo. 5s.

Life of Theodore Hook. Fcap. Svo. Is.

LOTJDON (MRS.). Gardening for Ladies. With Directions and

Calendar of Operations for Every Month. Woodcuts. Fcap. Svo. 3s. Qd.
LYELL (SiR CHARLES). Principles of Geology; or, the Modern
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Fossils and 600 Illustrations. Third Edition, Revised. PostSvo. 9s.

— Life and Letters. Edited by his sister-in-law, MRS.
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(K.M.). Geographical Handbook of Ferns. With Tables

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MAETZNER'S ENGLISH GRAMMAR. A Methodical, Analytical,
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MAHON (LORD), see STANHOPE.

MAINE (SiR H. SUMNER). Ancient Law : its Connection with the
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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 21

MANUAL OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY. For the Use of

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order of the Lords of the Admiralty.)

MARCO POLO. The Book of Set Marco Polo, the Venetian.

Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. A new Emglish
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MARSH (G. P.). Student's Manual of the English Language.

Edited with Additions. By DR. Wsr. SMITH. Post Svo. 7s. 6d.
MASTERS in English Theology. 'Lectures delivered at King's

College, London, in 1877, by Eminent Divines. With Introduction by

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MILLINGTON (REV. T. S.). Signs and Wonders in the Land of
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MIVART (Si. GEORGE). Lessons from Nature; as manifested in
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- The Cat. An Introduction to the Study of Backboned
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MOORE (THOMAS). Life and Letters of Lord Byron. Cabinet

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22 LIST OF WORKS

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HISTORY OF THE JEWS, from the earliest Period down to Modern
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EARLY CHRISTIANITY, from the Birth of Christ to the Aboli-
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HANDBOOK TO ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. Woodcuts. Crown

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- (CAPT. E. A.) Wayside Cross. Post Svo. 2*.

(BISHOP, D.D.,) Life. With a Selection from his

Correspondence and Journals. By his Sister. Map. Svo. 12s.

MOSSMAN (SAMUEL). New Japan ; the Land of the Eising Sun ;
its Annals during the past Twenty Years, recording the remarkable
Progress of the Japanese in Western Civilisation. With Map. Svo. 15*.

MOTLEY (J. L.). History of the United Netherlands : from the
Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Years' Truce, 1609. Portraits.
4 Vols. Post Svo. 6s. each.

Life and Death of John of Barneveld,
Advocate of Holland. With a View of the Primary Causes and
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MOZLEY (CANON). Treatise on the Augustinian doctrine of

Predestination. Crown 8vo. 9s.

MUIKHEAD (JAB.). The Vaux-de-Yire of Maistre Jean Le Houx,
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trations. Svo. 21s.

MUNRO'S (GENERAL) Life and Letters. By REV. G. E. GLEIG.

PostSvo. 3s. 6d.

MURCHISON (SiR EODERICK). Siluria ; or, a History of the
Oldest rocks containing Organic Remains. Map and Plates. Svo. 18s.

Memoirs. With Notices of his Contemporaries,

and Rise and Progress of Palaeozoic Geology. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIK.
Portraits. 2 Vols. Svo. 30s.

MURRAY (A. 8.). A History of Greek Sculpture, from the Earliest
Times down to the Age of Pheidias. With Illustrations. Roy. Svo. 21s.

MUSTERS' (CAPT.) Patagonians; a Year's Wanderings over
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NAPIER (SiR WM.). ^English Battles and Sieges of the Peninsular
War. Portrait. PostSvo. 9*.

NAPOLEON AT FONTAINEBLEAU AND ELBA. Journal of

Occurrences and Notes of Conversations. By SIB NEIL CAMPBELL.
Portrait. Svo. 15s.

NARES (SiR GEORGE), E.N. Official Report to the Admiralty of
the recent Arctic Expedition. Map. Svo. 2s. 6d.

NAUTICAL ALMANAC (THE). (By Authority.) ,2*. 6d. \
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PUBL1SHKD BY MR. MURRAY. 23

NEW TESTAMENT. With Short Explanatory Commentary.
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NEWTH (SAMUEL). First Book of Natural Philosophy ; an Intro-
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and Sound, with numerous Examples. Small 8vo. 3a. 6d.

Elements of Mechanics, including Hydrostatics,

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Mathematical Examples. A Graduated Series

of Elementary Examples in Arithmetic, Algebra, Logarithms, Trigo-
nometry, and Mechanics. Small 8v<>. 8s. 6cf.

NICOLAS (SiR HARRIS). Historic Peerage of England. Exhi-
biting the Origin, Descent, and Present State of every Title of Peer-
age which has existed in thin Country since the Conquest. By
WILLIAM COURTHOPK. 8vo. 80s.

NILE GLEANINGS. [See STUART.]

NIMROD, On the Chace — Turf— and Road. With Portrait and

Plates. Crown 8vo. 5s. Or with Coloured Plates, 7s. 6d.

NORDHOFF (CHAS.). Communistic Societies of the United

States; including Detailed Accounts of the Shakers, The Amana,
Oneida, Bethell, Aurora, Icarian and other existing Societies. With
40 Illustrations. 8vo. 15s.

NORTHCOTE'S (SIR JOHN) Notebook in the Long Parliament.

Containing Proceedings during its First Session, 1640. Edited, with
a Memoir, by A. H. A. Hamilton. Crown svo. 9«.

OWEN (LiEui.-CoL.). Principles aud Practice of Modern Artillery,

including Artillery Material, Gunnery, and Organisation and Use of
Artillery in Warfare. With Illustrations. 8vo. 15s.
OXENHAM (REV. W.). English Notes for Latin Elegiacs ; designed
for early Proficients in the Art of Latin Versification, with Prefatory
Rules of Composition in Elegiac Metre. 12mo. 3s. fid.

PAGE1\" (LORD GEORGE). The Light Cavalry Brigade in the
Crimea. Containing Extracts from Journal and Correspondence. Map.
Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.

PALGRAVE (R. H. I.). Local Taxation of Great Britain and

Ireland. 8vo. 5.«.

PALLISER (MRS.). Mottoes for Monuments, or Epitaphs selected
General Use and Study. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. la. 6d.

PARIS (DR.) Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest ;
or, the First Principles of Natural Philosophy inculcated by aid of the
Toys and Sports of Youth. Woodcuts. Post 8vo. Is. 6d.

PARKYNS' (MANSFIELD) Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia:
with Travels in that Country. With Illustrations. PostSvo. 7s. 6d.

PEEL'S (SiR ROBERT) Memoirs. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 15s.

PENN (RICHARD). Maxims and Hints for an Angler and Chess-
player. Woodcuts. Fcap. 8vo. Is.

PERCY (JOHN, M.D.). METALLURGY. Fuel, Wood, Peat, Coal,
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- Lead, including part of Silver. Illustrations. 8vo. 305:

- Silver and Gold. Part I. Illustrations. 8vo. 80s.
PERRY (REV. CANON). Life of St. Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of

Lincoln. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d.

History of the English Church. See STUDENTS' Manuals.

PHILLIPS (SAMUEL). Literary Essays from " The Times." With

Portrait. 2 Vol*. Fcap.Svo. 7s.

24 LIST OF WORKS

PIGAFETTA (FILIPPO). The Kingdom of Congo, and of the
Surrounding Comitrie1'. Transited and edited by MABGARITE HCTCH-
INSOK. With Preface by SIR T. FOWKLL BUXTON. Maps. bvo.
10s. 6d.

POPE'S (ALEXANDER) Works. With Introductions and Notes,
byREV.WHiTWELLELWiN. Vols. I., II., VI., VII., VIII. With For-
traits. 8vo. 10s. 6d. each.

PORTER (REV. J. L.). Damascus, Palmyra, and Lebanon. With

Travels among the Giant Cities of Bashan and the llauran. Map and
Woodcuts. PostSvo. It. Gd.

PRAYERrBOOK (ILLUSTRATED), with Borders, Initials, Vig-
nettes, &c. Edited, with Notes, by REV. THUS. JAAIKB. Medium
8vo. 18s. cloth; 31*. 6d. calf; 36/>. morocco.

(THE CONVOCATION), with altered rubrics, show-
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the Couvocations of Canterbury and York in 1879. Post 8vo. 5s.

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES. A Brief Memoir.

With Selections from her Correspondence and other unpublished
Papers. By LADY ROSE WEIGALL. With Portrait. 8vo. 8s. 6d.

PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENTS in Ecclesiastical Cases re-

lating to Doctrine and Discipline. With Historical Introduction,
by G. C. BRODRICK and W. H. KBKMANTLB. 8vo. 10*. 6d.
PSALMS OF DAVID. With Notes Explanatory and Critical by

the Dean of Wells, Canon Elliott, and Canon Cook. Medium 8vo. 10s. 6d.

PUSS IN BOOTS. With 12 Illustrations. By OTTO SPECKTER.

16mo. Is. 6d. Or coloured. 2*. Gd.
QUARTERLY REVIEW (THE). 8vo. 6«.
KAE (EDWARD). Country of the Moors. A Journey from Tripoli

in Barbary to the Holy City of Kairwan. Map and Etchings. Crown

8vo. 12*.
The White Sea Peninsula. Journey to the White Sea, and

the Kola Peninsula. With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. {In the Press.

RAMBLES in the Syrian Deserts. Post 8vo. 10«. 6rf.
RASSAM (HORMUZD). British Mission to Abyssinia. With

Notices of the Countries from Massowah to Magdala. Illustrations.

2 Vols. 8vo. 28s.

RAWLINSON'S (CANON) Herodotus. A New English Ver-
sion. Edited with Notes and Essays. Maps and Woodcut. 4 Vols. 8vo. 48*.

Five Great Monarchies of Chaldsea, Assyria, Media,

Babylonia, and Persia. With Maps and Illustrations. 3 Vols. 8vo. 42*.
- (SiR HENRY) England and Russia in the East ; a
Series of Papers on the Political and Geographical Condition ef Central
Asia. Map. 8vo. 12s.

REED (Sir E. J.) Iron-Clad Ships ; their Qualities, Performances,
and Cost. With Chapters on Turret Ships. Iron-Clad Rams.&c. With
Illustrations. 8vo. 12*.

Letters from Russia in 1875. 8vo. 5s.

Japan : Its History, Traditions, and Religions. With

Narrative of a Visit in Ib79. Illustrations. 2 Vols. 8vo. 28s.

REJECTED ADDRESSES (THE). By JAMES AND HORACE SMITH.

Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 3s. 6d. ; or Popular Edition, Fcap. 8vo. Is.
REMBRANDT. See MIDDLETON.
REYNOLDS' (SiR JOSHUA) Life and Times. By C. R. LESLIE,

R.A. and TOM TAYLOR. Portraits. 2 Vols. 8vo. 42*.
RICARDO'S (DAVID) Political Works. With a Notice of his

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PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 25

RIPA (FATHER). Thirteen Years at the Court of Peking. Post

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ROBERTSON (CANON). History of the Christian Church, from the

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ROBINSON (Rfiv. DR.). Biblical Researches m Palestine and the
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- (Wn.) Alpine Flowers for English Gardens. With
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— Sub-Tropical Garden. Illustrations. Small 8vo. 5s.
ROBSON (E. R.). SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. Remarks on the
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Illustrations. Medium 8v<>. 18s.

ROME (HisioKY OF). See GIBBON — LIDDELL— SMITH — STUDENTS'.

ROYAL SOCIETY CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS.

8 vols. 8vo. 20v. each. Half morocco, 28s. each.
RUXTON (GEo. F.). Travels inMexico; with Adventures among Wild

Tribes and Animals of the Prairies and Rocky Mountains. Post 8vo. 3s.6d.
ST. HUGH OF AVALON, Bishop of Lincoln; his Life by G. G.

PERRY, Canon of Lincoln. Post 8vo. 10s. Qd.

e»T. JOHN (CHARLES). Wild Sports and Natural History of the
Highlands of Scotland. Illustrated Edition. Crown 8vo. 15s. Cheap
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(BAYLE) Adventures in the Libyan Desert. Post 8vo. 2*.

SALDANHA POKE OF). See CARNOTA.

SALE'S (SiR ROBERT) Brigade in Afghanistan. With an Account of

the Defence of Jellalabad. By REV. G. R. GLEIG. Post 8vo. 2*.
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SCOTT (SiR GILBERT). Lectures on the Rise and Development
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SCHLIEMANN (DR. HENRY). Troy and Its Remains. A Narra-
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- Ancient Mycenre and Tiryns. With 500 Illus-
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Ilios; the City and Country of tbe Trojans,

including all Recent Discoveries and Researches made on the Site
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trations. Imperial 8vo. 50*.

SCHOMBEHG (GENERAL). The Odyssey of Homer, rendered

into English blank verse, Books I— XII. 8vo. 12*.
SEEBOHM (HENRY). Siberia in Europe ; a Naturalist's Visit to
the Valley of the Petchora in N.E. Ru-sta. With notices of Birds and
their migrations. With Map and Illustratious. Crown 8vo. 14*.

SELBORNB (LORD). Notes on some Passages in the Liturgical

History of the Reformed English Church. 8vo. 6s.

SHADOWS OF A SICK ROOM. Preface by Canon LIDDON.

16mo. 2s. 6d.
SHAH OF PERSIA'S Diary during his Tour through Europe in

1873. Translated from the Original. By J. W. RBDHOUSE. With

Portrait aud Coloured Title. Crown 8vo. 12s.

SHAW (T. B.). Manual of English Literature. Post 8vo. 7«. 6d.
Specimens of English Literature. Selected from the

Chief Writers. Post 8vo. It. 6d.

26 LIST OF WORKS

SHAW (ROBERT). Visit to High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar
(formerly Chinese Tartary), and Return Journey over the Karakorutn
Pass. With Map and Illustrations. 8vo. 16s.

SIERRA LEONE ; Described in Letters to Friends at Home. By

A LADY. Post 8vo. Ss. 6d.

SIMMONS (CAPT.). Constitution and Practice of Courts-Mar-
tial. 8vo. 15s.
SMILES' (SAMUEL, LL.D.) WOEKS :—

BRITISH ENGINEERS ; from the Earliest Period to the death of

the Stephenson«. With Illustrations. 5 Vols. Crown 8vo. la. 6d. each.
LIFE OP GEORGE STEPHENSON. Post Svo. :$s. 6d.
LIFE OF A SCOTCH NATURALIST (Tnos. EDWARD). Illustrations.

Crown 8vo. 10-. 6d.

LIFE OF A SCOTCH GEOLOGIST AND BOTANIST (ROBERT DICK).

Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 12s.

HUGUENOTS IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.

SELF-HELP. With Illustrations of Conduct and Persever-
ance. Post 8vo. 6*. Or in French, 5*.

CHARACTER. A Sequel to " SELF-HELP." Post 8vo. 6s.

THRIFT. A Book of Domestic Counsel. Post 8vo. 6s.

DUTY. With Illustrations of Courage, Patience, and Endurance.
Post 8vo. 6.*.

INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY; or, Iron Workers and Tool Makers.

Post 8vo. 6s.
BOY'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. Illustrations. Post Svo. 6s.

SMITH (DR. GEORGE) Student's Manual of the Geography of India.

Post Svo.

• Life of John Wileon, D.D. (Bombay), Missionary and

Philanthropist. Portrait. Post 8vo. 9s.

• (PHILIP). History of the Ancient World, from the Creation

to the Fall of the Roman Empire, A.D. 476. 3 Vols. Svo. 31s. 6d.

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) DICTIONARIES:—

DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE; its Antiquities, Biography,
Geography, and Natural History. Illustrations. 3 Vols. Svo. 105*.

CONCISE BIBLE DICTIONARY. With 300 Illustrations. Medium

8vo. 21s.

SMALLER BIBLE DICTIONARY. With Illustrations. Post

Svo. 7*. 6d.

CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. Comprising the History, Insti-
tutions, and Antiquities of the Christian Church. With Illustrations.
2 Vols. Medium Svo. 31. 13s. 6d.

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, SECTS, AND DOCTRINES ;
from the Times of the Apostles to the Age of Charlemagne. Medium 8vo.
Vols. I. & II. 31». 6d. each. (To be completed in 4 Vols.)

GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. With 500 Illustrations.

Medium Svo. 28*.

GREEK AND ROMAN BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY. With 600
Illustrations. & Vols. Medium Svo. 41. 4s.

GREEK AND ROMAN GEOGRAPHY. 2 Vois. With 500 Illustra-
tions. Medium Svo. 6tfs.

ATLAS OF ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY — BIBLICAL AND CLASSICAL.

Folio. 02. 6t.

CLASSICAL DICTIONARY OF MYTHOLOGY, BIOGRAPHY, AND
GEOGRAPHY. 1 Vol. With 750 Woodcuts. Svo. 185.

PUBLISHED BY MR. MURRAY. 27

SMITH'S (D&. War.) DICTIONARIES — continued.

SMALLER CLASSICAL DICTIONARY. With 200 Woodcuts. Crown

8vo. 7s. Qd.

SMALLER GREEK AND EOMAN ANTIQUITIES. With 200 Wood-
cuts. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
COMPLETE LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. With Tables of the

Roman Calendar, Measures, Weights, and Money. 8vo. 21*.
SMALLER LATIN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY. 12mo. 7s. 6d.
COPIOUS AND CRITICAL ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY. 8vo. 2ts.
SMALLER ENGLISH-LATIN DICTIONARY. 12mo. Is. Qd.

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) ENGLISH COURSE :—

SCHOOL MANUAL OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR, WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES.

Post 8vo. 3*. Qd.

PRIMARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 16mo. Is.
MANUAL OP ENGLISH COMPOSITION. With Copious Illustra-
tions and Practical Exercises. 12mo. 3s. Qd.
PRIMARY HISTORY OP BRITAIN. 12mo. 2s. Qd.
SCHOOL MANUAL OP MODERN GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL AND

Political. PostSvn. 5s.
A SMALLER MANUAL OP MODERN GEOGRAPHY. 16mo. 25. Qd.

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) FRENCH COURSE :—

FRENCH PRINCIPIA. Part I. A First Course, containing a
Grammar, Delectus, Exen-i.-es, and Vocabularies. 12mo. 3s. Qd.

APPENDIX TO FRENCH PRINCIPIA. Part I. Containing ad-
ditional Exercises, with Examination Papers. 12mo. 2*. Qd.

FRENCH FRINCIPIA. Part 11. A Eeading Book, containing
Fable-i, Stories, and Anecdotes, Natural Hibtory, and Scenes from the
History of France. With Grammatical Questions, Notes and copious
Etymological Dictionary. 12mo. 4s. Qd.

FRENCH PRINCIPIA. Part III. Prose Composition, containing
a Systematic Course of Exercises on the Syntax, with the Principal
Rules of Syntax. 12mo. . [In the Press.

STUDENT'S FRENCH GRAMMAR. By C. HERON-WALL. With

Introduction by M. LHtre. Post 8vo. 7*. 6d.

SMALLER GRAMMAR OP THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. Abridged

from the above. 12mo. 3s. Qd.

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) GERMAN COURSE :—

GERMAN I'RINCIPIA. Part I. A First German Course, contain-
ing a Grammar. Delectus, Exercise Book, and Vocabularies. 12mo. 3s. Qd.
GERMAN PRINCIPIA. Part II. A Reading Book ; containing

Fables, Stories, and Anecdotes, Natural Hi*toiy, and Scenes from the
History of Germany. With Grammatical Questions, Notes, and Dic-
tionary. 12mo. 3*. Qd.

PRACTICAL GERMAN GRAMMAR. Post 8vo. 85. Qd.

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) ITALIAN COURSE :—

ITALIAN PRINCIPIA. An Italian Course, containing a Grammar,
Delectus, Exercise Book, with Vocabularies, and Materials for Italian
Conversation. By Signor KICCI, Professor ot Italian at the City of
London College. 12mo. 3s. Qd.

ITALIAN PRINCIPIA. Part II. A First Italian Reading Book,

containing Fables, Anecdote?, Historv, and Passages from the best
I'alian Author?, with Grammatical Questions, Notes, and a Copious
Etymological Dictionary. By SIGNOK llicoi. IKmo. 3s. Qd.

28 LIST OP WORKS

SMITH'S (DR. WM.) LATIN COURSE:—

THE YOUNG BEGINNER'S FIRST LATIN BOOK : Containing the
Rudiments of Grammar, Easv Grammatical Questions and Exercises,
with Vocabularies. Being a Stepping stone to Principia Latina, Part I ,
for Young Children. 12mo. 2s.

THE YOUNG BEGINNER'S SECOND LATIN BOOK : Containing an
easy Latin Pending Book, with an Analysis of the Sentences, Notf-s,
and aLictiorary. Being a Stepping- stone to Principia Latina, Part II.,
for Young Children. 12m o. 2*.

PRINCIPIA LATINA. Part I. First Latin Course, containing a

Grammar, Delectus, and Exercise Book, with Vocabularies. 12mo. 3s. *d.
*** In this Edition the Cases of the Nouns, Adjectives, and Pronouns
are arranged both as in tlie ORDINARY GRAMMARS and as in the PUBLIC
SCHOOL PRIMER, together with the corresponding Exercises.

APPENDIX TO PRINCIPIA LATINA. Part I. ; being Additional
Exercises, with Examination Papers. 12mo. 2s. Qd.

PRINCIPIA LATINA. Part II. A Reading-book of Mythology,
Geography, Koman Antiquities, aud History. With Notes and Dic-
tionary. 12mo. 3«. <od.

PRINCIPIA LATINA. Part III. A Poetry Book. Hexameters
and Pentameters ; Eclog. Ovidianse; Latin Prosody. 12mo. 3s. 6d.

PRINCIPIA LATINA. Part IV. Prose Composition. Rules of
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