152 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA 



bird. That day we also bought two very small swan's 

 eggs, smaller than those of the ordinary wild swan, from 

 a fisherman. He told us that his mate had the skin of 

 the parent bird, which he had caught at the nest. The 

 fishing encampment from which he came was lower 

 down the river, on an island opposite the hamlet of 

 Stanavialachta. We could not think this was a made-up 

 story, for the man could not have heard of the reward 

 we had offered for eggs accompanied with the captured 

 parent bird, as we were the first to speak to him on his 

 arrival. We therefore at once determined that if we did 

 not discover Bewick's swan in the neighbourhood of 

 Alexievka, we would make an excursion to Stanavialachta 

 for the express purpose of obtaining the head and skin of 

 the bird whose eggs we had just bought. 



The following day our Samoyede returned from his 

 excursion in quest of the swan. He had failed to secure 

 her. From the appearance of the trap it seemed as if the 

 swan had shuffled up to her nest on her belly, after the 

 manner of a diver, for the trap had gone off and only 

 secured a few breast- feathers. Simeon set off on a second 

 expedition. The first time the nest had been discovered 

 the eggs were exposed to view, this time they were care- 

 fully covered with down. Simeon now reset the trap, 

 this time laying it over the eggs, and carefully concealing 

 it with the down. His hope was that the bird would 

 remove the down with her beak and be snared by the 

 neck. On the morrow he came back to us, however, 

 with the four eggs and no swan ; she had never returned, 

 having apparently forsaken her nest, as we had feared 

 she would. Simeon brought with him four ducks' nests, 

 but the down was all mixed and the find was therefore 

 valueless. These are some of the disappointments 

 caused by the clumsy mismanagement of untrained men. 



