THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING 113 



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 "■ cJiiv-W 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. Of the Lapp-tit {Parus cinctus, Bodd.) we saw two 

 pairs and a few solitary birds. 



The note of the waxwingr had long been familiar to 



O ft) 



me, for I had once kept a pair in a cage for some 

 months. I was delighted to hear it once more resound- 

 ing from the lofty spruce 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- 

 like appendages on the secondaries. The eggs in the 

 female were very large, and the testes 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 judged it to be a )'oung bird. 



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

 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 gliikd, and the female taitaiora. Willow- 

 grouse and hazel-grouse, we were told, were abundant in 

 some seasons. 



We saw one pair of golden plover on the newly sown 

 cornfields behind the village, and 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 on the sandy ground beyond 



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