ARRIVE AT ABRAMOFF 125 



parts. Later in the night we had the opportunity of 

 procuring both birds and eggs, and verifying our previous 

 recognition. We had pulled up at one of the islands to 

 boil the kettle for tea and cook some fish. After this 

 meal we began to explore. We shot three terns, and 

 found three nests, securino" five eofg-s in all. As I was in 

 the act of taking up one of these nests, a hare ran up, 

 stood in mute amazement gazing at me for a second or 

 two, and then turned and bolted. On this island we shot 

 an oyster-catcher ; it was evident the nest was there, but 

 we could not find it. 



Rain and contrary winds accompanied us all the next 

 day ; and at night we stopped at Abramoff. We got 

 from the peasants there eggs of the common gull and 

 some of the white wa^rtail, besides those of the wieeon, 

 golden-eye, fieldfare, and redpoll. We also saw a couple 

 of young ravens. We shot a ringed-plover, a Temminck's 

 stint, and a pair of yellow-headed wagtails. We were 

 now leaving the more hilly country and the forests of 

 pine, and were entering a waste of willows. Far as the 

 eye could reach, on all sides of us, stretched this never- 

 ending, almost impenetrable willow-swamp, with winding 

 kurias and lakes. The only break in the monotony was 

 here and there a straggling bit of pasture-land, on which 

 stood a house or two, where a cow fed and the peasants 

 fished, and where, in the autumn, they would make hay. 

 Terns, gulls, and oyster-catchers were now not unfre- 

 quently seen, in addition to the almost numberless ducks 

 that were breeding everywhere. On the shores would 

 occasionally appear a Terek sandpiper, a Temminck's 

 stint, or a dotterel. In the thickets the bluethroat was 

 giving way to the sedge-warbler, but the willow-wren 

 remained the commonest bird. The notes of the redpoll, 

 the brambling, and the redwing still sounded. The 



