310 On the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 



in the beginning of June^ and afterwards traced it down the 

 river as far as the head of the delta, where, however, it was 

 scarce, and much scarcer than the next species. We did not 

 see it at Alexievka, nor anywhere upon the tundra. We were 

 not a little surprised when we first became acquainted with 

 the arboreal habits of the Snipe at Habariki, and saw one of 

 these birds perched, seventy feet from the ground, on the 

 topmost upright twig of a bare larch, where, one would have 

 thought, it could scarcely find sufficient foot-hold. With its 

 head lower than its body and tail, it sat there, uttering at in- 

 tervals the curious double " clucking '^ note, tjick-tjuck, tjick- 

 tjuck, whilst others of the same species were " drumming '^ 

 high in air over the marsh. To put all beyond a doubt, 

 Harvie Brown shot one in this peculiar position. Nor is 

 the Common Snipe the only bird which, not practising 

 the habit with us, we found perching freely in Northern 

 Russia : the Snow-Bunting and Pipits have already been 

 instanced ; and we may also mention the Common Gull, as 

 will be seen under the notice of that species further on. The 

 Curlew also was seen to perch on bushes and trees at Sujma, 

 near Archangel, by Alston and Harvie Brown in 1872 (Ibis, 

 1873, p. 70). There can be little doubt, we imagine, that 

 this habit was induced in the first instance, by the flooding 

 of great tracts of country by the annual overflow of the 

 rivers in spring, just at the time of the passage of the mi- 

 gratory flights, and, further, that what was originally forced 

 upon them has become, by use, a favourite habit. 



SCOLOPAX MAJOR, L. 



We shot a couple of Great Snipes in the forest tract behind 

 Habariki, which were the first examples we saw of the species. 

 This was on the night of the 3-4th June. Afterwards we 

 found it not uncommonly on the river and abundantly on the 

 delta, especially between Viski and Gorodok, where we fell 

 in with a large migratory flight on the 17th June. The spe- 

 cimens of the latter which we shot proved to be all male birds. 

 The following day we found a nest containing three eggs on 

 an island opposite Kuya. We did not find it anywhere on 

 the tundra. 



