294 Messrs. H, Seebohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 



flocks were seen feeding at or flying along the edges of the 

 sand-banks when the tide receded. We supposed that these 

 large flocks came from some locality distant from their feeding- 

 grounds; and we noticed that the majority of them arrived 

 from the northward. This was on the 14th July. We are 

 somewhat at a loss to know whence they came, and where 

 their especial breeding-grounds were, unless they came along 

 shore from the westward from the tundras of the Timanskai 

 laud. The Timanskai coast, as we were informed, and the 

 whole promontory of Russkai Zavarod are sandy ; and this 

 information confirms the accounts of the earlier voyagers 

 [vide Hakluyt's ' Voyages/ '' Voyage of Steuen Burrough/^ 

 vol. i. p. 279). Thus it is quite possible that the low-lying 

 Golaievkai banks may be the nearest available and suitable 

 feeding-grounds for the Dunlins and other Waders which 

 breed on the northern parts of the Timanskai tundra. We 

 fired several times into these flocks, but failed to discover any 

 immature examples amongst those we killed, as we naturally 

 expected to do upon finding such large flocks at this season ; 

 nor was it, indeed, until some days afterwards that we pro- 

 cured the first young we had seen, viz. on the 20th July, at 

 Vassilkova. 



Tringa minuta, Leisl. 



The short arctic summer was already far advanced ; it was 

 the 13th July ; and we had almost despaired of reaching the 

 breeding-haunts of the Little Stint. During the migration 

 of the birds at Ust Zylma, and on our voyage down the river, 

 nothing had been seen of the species, though every passing 

 *'trip^' of Temminck's Stint had been eagerly scrutinized, 

 and many birds shot for identification. We made a point of 

 shooting every Stint about which we had the least doubt. 

 Clearly there were no Little Stints on any of the islands, nor 

 at any point visited by us between Ust Zylma and the sea ; 

 and clearly also they had not migrated past Ust Zylma. One 

 of two things remained for us to do — either to induce M. 

 Arendt to allow us the use of the river-steamer to visit the 

 distant island of Varandai, near the eastern entrance to the 



