BIRDS OF ARCHANGEL 19 



any other medicines, unless the outward 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 

 Russian and bad French, and since Alston and Harvie- 

 Brown's visit to Archangel in 1872 had spent a con- 

 siderable part of his leisure time in shooting and skinning 

 birds. Accompanied by Piottuch we made several ex- 

 cursions 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 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 domesti- 

 cated. 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 wanting. 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 

 redpoll, 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 wax- 



