2 CHARADEIID^. 



circle in the valley of the Yenesay. I shot my first specimen on the 5th of June 

 in our winter-quarters on the river, and afterwards secured many more specimens 

 as it passed the Koo-ray-i-ka on migration. I did not observe it again until we 

 reached lat. 691° on the open tundra, just beyond the limit of forest-growth. 

 Not a trace of a pine tree was to be seen, and the birch trees had dwindled down 

 to stunted bushes scarcely a foot high. On the 14th of July, as we were delayed 

 in our passage down the river by a gale, I took advantage of the delay and went 

 on shore for a few hours. A climb of about a hundred feet brought me to the 

 tundra. I took a nest of the Dusky Ouzel with young birds as I climbed up the 

 steep bank where alders and willows still flourished luxuriantly, and had scarcely 

 reached the top before I heard the cry of a Plover. The tundra was hilly, 

 with lakes and swamps and bogs in the wide valleys and plains. I found myself 

 upon an excellent piece of Plover-ground, covered more with moss and lichen 

 than with grass, sprinkled with patches of bare pebbly earth, and interspersed 

 with hummocky plains, where ground-fruits and gay flowers were growing. I 

 soon caught sight of both male and female, and sat down with the intention 

 of watching the latter to the nest. After Avasting half an hour, during which the 

 bird wandered uneasily round and round me, without showing any partiality for a 

 special locality, I came to the conclusion, either that the eggs were hatched, in 

 which case my watching was in vain, or that I was so near the nest that 

 the female dare not come on. The male had a splendid black belly ; and I 

 decided to take my first good chance of a shot at him, and then to devote another 

 half-hour to a search for the nest. All my attempts to follow the female with 

 my glass, in order to trace her to the nest, proved ineff'ectual ; she was too nearly 

 the colour of the ground and the herbage was too high. Feeling convinced that 

 I was within thirty paces of the nest, I shot the male and commenced a diligent 

 search. He proved to be, as I suspected, the Asiatic Golden Plover with grey 

 axillaries. By a wonderful piece of good fortune I found the nest with four eggs 

 in less than five minutes ; it was merely a hollow in the ground, upon a piece of 

 turfy land, overgrown with moss and lichen, and was lined with broken stalks of 

 reindeer-moss. 



" At Golcheeka the Asiatic Golden Plover was very common, and I tried to 

 watch several birds to the nest, but in every case without success ; they behaved 

 exactly as if they had young. I succeeded in catching one young bird in down, 

 and reluctantly came to the conclusion that I was too late, on the 20th of July, 

 for eggs. The eggs of the Asiatic Golden Plover are very similar to those of 

 the European species. Those I obtained (the only authentic specimens known 

 to exist) vary in ground-colour from light buif to very pale buft" with a slight olive 



