HAZEL-GROUSE 307 



the women wear nothing on the head, but the men tie 

 a handkerchief round the brow, and when I asked the 

 reason of this custom, I was told that a man must not 

 expose his hair. 



In the afternoon I had a long round on snow-shoes, 

 but saw only half a dozen birds. Four of them were 

 pine grosbeaks ; I was chasing the fourth when I saw a 

 large bird stretch its neck out from a well-leaved branch 

 of a pine-tree, and immediately draw it in again. I 

 could not see anything, but I fired at the foliage, and 

 down tumbled a hazel-grouse. Shortly afterwards I 

 caught a momentary glimpse of another alighting in a 

 distant pine. I carefully stalked it, but although my 

 snow-shoes made noise enough on the frozen crust of the 

 snow, as soon as I doubled in full view of the tree, the 

 bird remained standing on a conspicuous branch within 

 easy shot. The birds turned out to be male and female, 

 and were the first hazel-grouse I had seen. I saw a 

 solitary nutcracker in the forest, but these were the only 

 birds I came across during a ramble of four hours, except 

 close to the house, where a flock of snow-buntings, half 

 a dozen nutcrackers, and a pair of crows were constantly 

 to be seen. In the eveninof I bought a coat of a 

 Tungusk. He could not speak Russian, but he tried to 

 make me understand that he was Tunorusk and not 

 Ostiak by showing me his hair. It was brushed back 

 and tied in a knot at the neck like an incipient pigtail. 

 He gave me to understand that the Ostiaks wore their 

 hair loose and tumblins: over their forehead. 



On the 4th of May the weather still showed no sign 

 of change. A burning hot sun was trying to thaw the 

 snow. An icy cold nor'-wester was freezing it again 

 directly. I shirked the cold morning, and got one of the 

 sailors to take me in the dog-sledge a couple of miles up 



