4 EARLY EXPLORERS 



are still fresh in the memory of the older generation of 

 ornithologists, who will never cease to regret his untimely 

 death. Notwithstanding his researches, there remained 

 half a dozen well-known British birds whose breeding- 

 grounds still continued wrapped in mystery, to solve 

 which has been the ambition of many field naturalists 

 during the past twenty years. These birds, to the dis- 

 covery 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. 



In 1872 myfriend John A. Harvie-Brown accompanied 

 E. R. Alston on an ornithological expedition to Arch- 

 angel, the results of which were published in the " Ibis" 

 for January 1873; and in 1874 I went with Robert 

 Collett of Christiania to the north of Norway. Neither 

 of these journeys added any very important fact to the 

 stock of ornithological knowledge ; 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 also 

 a chance that among these might be found some of the 

 half-dozen birds which I have named, the discovery of 

 whose breeding-haunts w^as the special object of our 

 ambition. 



* The Knot (Tringa canuius) was the only one of these six species of birds 

 which we did not meet with in the valley of the Petchora. It probably breeds 

 on the shores of the Polar Basin in both hemispheres, but its eggs were absolutely 

 unknown until they were discovered on the west coast of Greenland a few years 

 ago. 



