164 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



bo come Avith me to the tent, and leave all in order against 

 the birds return. The adnlt population of Golchika 

 was out fishing, but I was lucky enough to obtain the 

 help of a mystified but obliging infant of seven years old. 



The bird watched the boy off the place, and then 

 returned at once to the nest. And I have nothing par- 

 ticular to chronicle. Sht covered her eggs methodically, 

 ran off with clock-like regularity whenever an exposrire 

 was made, and returned again as soon as the tent was 

 quiet. The fashion of her return was to fly right up to 

 the eggs with a stormy gust of wings, and considering 

 her mouse-like size the noise was startlingly loud. It is 

 very difficult to realize the smaUness of these tiny waders 

 when pitching the tent by the nest, and I wished at once, 

 as I focussed her upon the screen, that I had pushed 

 the camera a little nearer, for she was invisible as she 

 dodged round the eggs in the forest of scrub willow. 

 Later in the day she varied her procedure by going to 

 sleep. I took advantage of her mood to substitute a 

 14" for an 8" lens, and took her portrait on a larger scale. 

 Throughout I say " she " for convenience and con- 

 vention, for in this case I did not ascertain the sex of 

 the bird. But I have obtained both male and female 

 birds from nests on other occasions. 



The nestling of Temminck's Stint is very distinct from 

 that of Erolia minuta, being much greyer in colour. I 

 have never found one myself, but one of the Russians 

 brought me a newly-hatched chick and a male Grey 

 Phalarope, which he declared was rruiht, i.e., the mother. 

 I was not acquainted with the young of this species, so 

 I labelled the nestling provisionally as a Phalarope. 

 Since my return, however, Mr. Heatley Noble has kindly 

 allowed me to see his fine collection of young in down, and 

 the skin in my collection turns out undoubtedly to be 

 Erolia temminckii, the young of Phalaropus fulicarius 

 being quite distinct. 



When the young are hatched the old birds are very 

 anxious and dash boisterovisly round the intruder, 



