422 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



A flock of Sandpipers attracted our attention, and we 

 were long in pursuit of them, as they were exceptionally 

 wary and wild (very different from the tame flocks at 

 Grangemouth, on the Firth of Forth, in the autumn). 

 At first we took them for Phalaropes, as the cry 

 closely resembled the tjick tjick, tjick tjick of that 

 bird. Then later, refraction assisting in the misidenti- 

 fication, I cried out, ' By Jove, I believe they are 

 Knots ! ' Immediately after they rose and flew straight 

 to us, but the low light from the sun, glancing through 

 a thick mist and upon the pools of water left by the 

 tide, made it difficult to shoot, much more to identify 

 a small wader by its flight. The shrill trill of a Dunlin 

 amongst the flock again misled us. I fired both barrels, 

 and succeeded in killing one bird ; it was a Sanderling. 

 Ah hah ! w^e are surely now on the track of the migration. 



AVe shot two more Sanderlings, of which we saw and 

 identified quite a number after the sun got higher. 

 Dunlins, too, were common, in flocks, coming to feed 

 doubtless at the time of low tide, from the tundra or 

 other islands where they breed. It is perhaps possible, 

 however, that these flocks are young birds of the year 

 not breeding. 



July 14. 



On Wednesday, the 14th of July, the steamer — safis 

 compass — lay-to in the middle of mist al)0ut 4 a.m. A 

 beacon had been erected on No. 4, and a S.W. course 

 had been taken in search of No. 3. A strong tide ebbing 

 through the channel made the steamer set down to the 

 northward, and baffled the captain and Arendt to fix 

 her locality ; so the anchor was dropped in deep water 

 — 18 feet — till the sun should dispel the mist. When it 

 did rise we found No. 3 about a verst on our starboard 

 bow, and after running in a little closer we landed in 

 the boat. 



