A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



the Petchora River, in the north of European 

 Russia, brought to light an interesting fact 

 in connexion with the travels of birds. In 

 company with Mr. Harvie Brown, he under- 

 took an expedition with the object of finding 

 the eggs and nests of half a dozen of our 

 winter visitors who leave us every spring 

 and retreat to the far north, and whose 

 breeding- places had not been hitherto located. 

 These birds were the gray plover, the curlew- 

 sandpiper, the sanderling, the little stint, 

 the knot, and Bewick's swan, all of which 

 are winter arrivals on our coasts. 



The region which Mr. Seebohm visited 

 was along the Petchora River, near to which 

 is the mighty tundra or region of treeless 

 swamp. This is a quite uninhabited land, 

 and is for eight months out of the twelve 

 covered with snow ; but so great are the 

 attractions of the tundra to thousands and 

 tens of thousands of migrants that the 

 pageant of their arrival must strongly 

 impress every intelligent observer. He 

 furthermore revealed what the secret at- 

 traction was. At the beginning of the 

 month of April, when Mr. Seebohm arrived 

 at Ust Zylma, three hundred miles from the 



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