BIRDS OF THE SHORES 421 



line of migration ; but here, if anywhere, it may be 

 looked for. 



As it trips daintily ui3on the mud, or flits over 

 the heads of its companions to obtain a foremost 

 place, it constantly utters a soft piping cry, far 

 different from the louder note of the Dunlin. The 

 Little Stint is one of the birds whose nest for many 

 years evaded detection. In 1843 the explorer 

 Middendorft' found its breeding haunts in the far 

 east of Siberia, but it was not until 1875 that eggs 

 were discovered in Europe. 



In Seebohm's Siberia in Europe an interesting 

 account is given of the success of his expedition. 

 The explorers had reached a desolate region near 

 the mouth of the Petchora river, a Avaste of dead 

 flat land full of little lakes, mostly very shallow, and 

 filled with black and coffee-coloured mud with an 

 inch or two of brackish water upon it. Mr. 

 Seebohm writes: — "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 

 w-e watched the parent bird as she was fluttering, flv- 

 ing and running all around us, sometimes coming 

 within a foot of one of us. We went a short dis- 

 tance, and Piottuch again made loud demonstra- 

 tions of delight. This time it was nest and eggs. 

 The nest was like that of most Sandpipers, and 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 



