434 Messrs. H. Sccbohm and J. A. Harvie Brown on 



XLIII. — Notes on the Birds of the Lower Petchora. By 

 Henuy Seeijoiim, F.Z.S., and John A. Harvie Brown. 



[Continued from p. 311, and concluded.] 



As the snow gradually disappeared from the more exposed 

 hill-sides behind Ust Zylma, and signs of coming summer 

 began to gladden us after our long weary waiting, we looked 

 forward each day with increasing expectancy for the vanguard 

 of the great flights of migratory birds, which would, ere long, 

 fill the pine forests, and the fields behind the town, and the 

 birch-covered banks and islands of the river with life. Witli 

 scarcely less eagerness, and with even greater bustle of pre- 

 paration, did our good friends MM. Znaminsky and SacharofE 

 (keen sportsmen both) look forward to the arrival of the 

 wildfowl ; and various small excursions were undertaken to 

 certain well-knoAvn haunts in the vicinity, to ascertain whether 

 or not they were beginning to put in an appearance. Of the 

 wildfowl, Swans and Geese were the first to arrive ; but 

 Ducks were not observed in any numbers until some days 

 later, viz. upon the eve of the breaking-up of the ice on the 

 river Zylma, which took place on the 20th May. For some 

 days previous to that date a remarkable change in the ap- 

 pearance of the ice of the Petchora had become obvious ; and 

 the ice of the Zylma had become still more suggestive of ap- 

 proaching dissolution. Looking away down the great river 

 as we crossed it on the night of the 18th May, it seemed 

 vaster and calmer in the stillness ; looked like a great limit- 

 less plain towards the north, with a few wooded oases (islands) 

 on the horizon distinctly defined against the white light of 

 the northern sky. Scarcely any snow remained on the sur- 

 face ; and large lakes of snow-water had formed here and there, 

 those nearest the shore fed by considerable streams and run- 

 lets from the high grounds behind Ust Zylma. Water-holes 

 were not scarce in the ice of the Zylma, wells of water bub- 

 bling up through holes and fissures, showing the rapid disso- 

 lution going on underneath, and the increasing upward pres- 

 sure of the water. The great cavity beneath the ice had" 

 become filled up; and the water hour after hour, even minute 



