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



Late in the evening of the 24th July, however (most of 

 which day Scebohm and Harvie Brown had spent in explor- 

 ing the tundra on the north-east side of the inlet, and the 

 course of the Dvoinik river, having punted our small boat 

 along shore amongst the sand-banks, and across the narrow 

 channel, and landed close to a small deserted hut made of 

 logs of drift wood, Seebohm and Piottuch found another nest, 

 also containing four eggs, close to the place Avhere Ave had got 

 the others. Harvie Brown had gone on along the shore to the 

 wreck, to prepare dinner. This nest was very neatly formed. 

 Seebohm heard a bird utter a low note behind him, and, turn- 

 ing sharply round, said to Piottuch, " C^est le rare Kuleek." 

 They saw the bird flying up from its feeding-grounds on the 

 margin of the pools ; and shortly afterwards it alighted on the 

 sloping face of the tundra. This bird had probably come 

 straight away to cover its eggs ; and a dense mist coming 

 down suddenly, over sea and land, had doubtless quickened 

 its movements. Seebohm and Piottuch watched it to its 

 nest ; and after giving the bird two or three minutes^ grace, 

 they walked straight up to the nest. The bird was very tame, 

 running round them and coming close up, like the bird of 

 the first young (No. 1). On alighting it preened its feathers, 

 and then walked leisurely on to its nest. It had not appa- 

 rently the slightest idea of danger. Seebohm shot the bird, 

 cut out the turf with the nest, and brought them, along with 

 the eggs, to the wreck. The eggs are like the others, little 

 Dunlin's all over ; and we think we may conclude that the 

 eggs of this species run through the same varieties as those 

 of the Dunlin. 



Piottuch also reported another nest containing four eggs, 

 which he had found during the day. He had shot the bird, 

 left the nest and eggs, which he wished us to see in situ. 

 Accordingly, about 7 p.m. on the 25th July, Piottuch took 

 us to this Little Stint's nest (the fifth set), about three versts 

 from the wreck. The nest, which Piottuch had carefully 

 marked, was on the sloping edge of the tundra — the neutral 

 ground between tundra and meadow — on the left bank of the 



