118 Messrs. H. Seebolim and J. A. Harvie Brown on 



the last-mentioned date until we found them scattered over 

 their great breeding-haunts on the northern tundras. Nests 

 and eggs were brought to us by the Zyriani on the 22nd 

 June — the nests invariably lined with feathers, which serve 

 to distinguish their contents from the eggs of Anthus cervi- 

 nus, the nest of which latter bird is lined with wiry grass, and 

 contains no feathers. By the 24th June the eggs were con- 

 siderably incubated ; and on the 6th July we found young 

 able to fly. The Lapland Bunting is essentially a bird of the 

 tundra, and is widely and numerously distributed over the 

 whole tundra-land as far as we went, viz. to Dvoinik, where 

 we obtained young birds. On one occasion we saw the species 

 on one of the willow-covered islands opposite Stanavoialachta, 

 a solitary example which may or may not have been breed- 

 ing there. 



Plectrophanes nivalis (L.). 



The Snow-Bunting is exceedingly abundant all the way 

 north and east from Archangel to Ust Zylma during the 

 spring ; and great numbers of these lovely birds are caught by 

 the village boys in horsehair nooses, and sold at the rate of 

 100 for half a rouble ; and very good eating they are. Large 

 flocks were feeding on the great manure heaps by the side of 

 the river Mezen, close to the town, in the beginning of 

 April ; and they were even more abundant at List Zylma, in 

 the irregular streets and yards of the town, and on the hill- 

 slopes behind, where the snow had disappeared during the 

 partial thaws, and where manure had been sledged out and 

 spread by the natives. By the 24th May nearly every Snow- 

 Bunting had disappeared from Ust Zylma. 



It was not until long afterwards that we saw a few at 

 Dvoinik, where we secured the full-grown young on the 23rd 

 July, and also the old birds in full breeding-dress. They 

 were flying about and settling upon the great piles of drift- 

 wood close to the beach, which appeared to be a suitable 

 haunt ; but we cannot say whether they were reared there or 

 on the Pytkoff Mountains, some 15 miles inland. 



During the migration we constantly saw Snow-Buntings 



