LITTLE STINT. 209 



almost hidden, or traceable only by rows of cotton-grass. The tussocks are 

 covered Avith green moss, with now and then a little reindeer-moss; but 

 this undergrowth is almost hidden with cloudberry, a few species of Juncus, 

 and sundiy Carices, with occasionally a few dwarf shrubs and flowers of the 

 tundra. The nests were within a hundred yards of the place where I shot 

 the five Little Stints on the 14th of July, on a comparatively dry extent of 

 tundra, gently sloping towards the north-east, lying between the lagoon and 

 the inland sea — exactly the place in which one would expect them to breed, 

 not too swampy, but probably the coolest place the birds could have chosen. 

 The Pytkoff Mountains, though at a considerably greater elevation (513 feet 

 above the level of the sea), are, no doubt, warmer, because more inland. 

 The sandy shore, having little or no cover, would also be hotter from the 

 sun. Facing the north-east, this part of the tundra catches most of the 

 prevailing winds at this season of the year and the least sun ; and no doubt 

 the large bay or inland sea on one side and the open water on the other help 

 to cool the air. The choice of a breeding-place bears only a secondary 

 relation to latitude, longitude, or elevation. It is inaccurate to state that 

 at the westerly or southerly limit of their distribution birds breed at the 

 greatest elevation : this may or may not be the case, according to cir- 

 cumstances. The whole question is doubtless one of temperature ; and the 

 true statement of the case must be, that at the warmest limit of their dis- 

 tribution birds choose the coolest locality in which to breed — a statement 

 which almost amounts to a platitude, but one, nevertheless, that cannot be 

 too constantly remembered by field-naturalists in search of undiscovered 

 breeding-grounds. 



Our next nest was taken on the 24th of July. Harvie-Brown and I had 

 been up all night, shooting by the light of the midnight sun, hoping to 

 avoid the mosquitoes, and were returning home to our wrecked ship in a 

 thick white morning mist. I stopped behind to refresh myself with a 

 plunge in the sea, and afterwards turned towards the Little-Stint ground. 

 Just as I reached it I was glad to see Piottuch emerge from the white mist, 

 with the intelligence that he had found another nest of the Little Stint, 

 containing four eggs, about three versts off", and had shot the bird, leaving 

 the nest and eggs for us to take. We walked on together a short distance, 

 when I heard the now familiar cry of a Little Stint behind me, a sharp 

 wick, almost exactly the same as the cry of the Red-necked Phalarope or 

 that of the Sanderliug. Turning quickly round I saw the bird flying past 

 as if coming up from its feeding-grounds ; it wheeled round us at some 

 distance and alighted on the ground about eighty yards ahead. We walked 

 slowly up towards it, and stood for some time watching it busily employed 

 in preening its feathers. By-and-by we sat down. It presently began to 

 run towards us, stopping now and then to preen a feather or two. Then 

 it turned back a few paces, and, lifting its wings, settled down, evidently 



VOL. III. p 



