158 AFTER GREY PLOVERS AT WASILKOVA 



drier situation on the tundra, upon some sloping bank 

 overlooking a river or a lake, and sheltered by dwarf 

 birch or willows. 



We first paid a visit to the marshy ground and saw 

 many dunlins, Lapland buntings, and red-throated pipits ; 

 one of the latter was carrying in its bill a caterpillar at 

 least an inch long. Our next resort was to the sandy 

 banks, where we found a ring dotterel's nest. We then 

 visited the Buffon's skua ground. The large flock had 

 left, but about a dozen remained behind. We watched 

 them for an hour, and shot one. They were mostly 

 hawking up and down the moor, occasionally resting on 

 the ground. Suddenly, a skua uttered its alarm note ; it 

 sounded as if we had approached too near its nest. I 

 whistled for my companion to come, and we lay down, 

 about 1 20 yards apart, for an hour. The skua did not 

 run about on the ground, but kept uneasily flying from 

 one spot to the other, seldom remaining long in one 

 place. One spot, however, it visited four times, and 

 rested longer on it than on the others. The third time 

 it visited it I made up my mind the nest was there, and 

 carefully adjusted my gun on a hillock to cover the spot 

 in case I lost it. The fourth time the bird visited it, 

 Harvie- Brown and I got up together, each followed our 

 bearines, and in about a minute we crossed each other at 

 the nest, in which were two eggs. The bird was near at 

 hand, shamming lameness to attract our attention. My 

 companion walked up to it and shot — to our disappoint- 

 ment and disgust, not a Buffon's, but a Richardson's 

 skua. 



After this we turned our attention to the grey plover 

 ground. We found one of our men trying to watch one 

 of these birds to the nest. We lay down, one fifty yards 

 to his rio^ht, and the other as much to his left. The birds 



