the Birds of the Lower Fetchora, 307 



About 400 yards further on along the shore, and on 



the sloping dwarf- willow-covered meadow between the sharply 

 defined tundra proper and the equally well-defined basin of 

 the inland sea, and close to three stranded roots of large 

 trees, I found another nest with four eggs, having watched the 

 bird fly up, as before, from the ooze and alight, and having 

 flushed her from, and watched her again to the nest. This 

 nest was on the top of an isolated clump of sphagnum, 

 through which a few stems of dwarf willow were growing*. 

 In every respect the behaviour of the bird was the same as at 

 the other nests, save that the presence of the dog seemed to 

 cause her more alarm and make her shyer of approaching. 

 She once shammed broken wing, and once flew away to the 

 mud-flat. I lay within twenty yards of the nest, with my 

 back resting against one of the roots, saw her approach, preen 

 her featliers, advance, raise her wings and settle upon the 

 nest. I then put her off" and shot her. I afterwards con- 

 tinued for a verst or two along the meadow, but saw no more 

 Little Stints; and I then retraced my steps to the wreck. 

 There I found Seebohm busy at work preparing the breast of 

 a Bewick's Swanf for dinner, baking it in clay under a 

 roaring fire of drift wood on the beach. It proved not un- 

 palatable aided by stewed prunes, especially the prunes, as 

 Paddy would say." 



The Samoyede, Simeon, yesterday brought in another 

 voung bird in down, a good deal older than those procured 

 before ; and this was the last we saw of young or eggs of the 

 Little Stint, although we continued to see the old birds in 

 small flocks both on the shores of this inland sea and of 



* Nests found upon the soft sphagnum had every appearance of having- 

 been formed by the pressing-down of the moss by the bird's body ; but 

 those found upon barer ground could scarcely have been prepared in this 

 way, and were probably dusted out by the bird's feet and wings ; or they 

 may have been natural hollows chosen for the purpose. The Temmiuck's 

 Stint, we have reason to believe, sometimesavailsitself of natural hollows 

 in sandy localities. 



t AVhich Swan Feodar and Simeon had brought from the big lake at 

 the som-ces of the Eevka and Erisvanka rivers {vide article on Bewick's 

 Swan, infra). 



