WE WALK ACROSS u 5 



undertaking to say something about the birds as British. 

 The Arctic skua, a dark form of which is known as 

 Richardson's Skua, belongs to a group of sea-birds of 

 great interest. Four of these occur on our coasts, but 

 only two nest with us, and on our extreme Northern 

 Islands. The great skua, the ' bonxie ' of the Shetlanders, 

 is one, and the other is the bird above. They are the 

 ' robber-gulls ; ' indeed, when one has grown familiar 

 with their ways in such places as Kolguev, one comes to 

 think of them as raptorial gulls. Not only do they rob 

 at sea the poor little other gulls, but quarter the tundra 

 for eggs and young birds as steadily as a brace of setters 

 or a pair of marsh-harriers. 



A light wind was blowing,*and it was not very cold nor 

 very foggy. The snow, in melting off the top of the 

 ridge, had worn a little water-course which was now dry, 

 and here, by pulling up lumps of saxifrage, sand and 

 moss, we were able to construct very comfortable nests. 



The ridges too were covered with creeping birch, most 

 of it dead and brittle. After working for half an hour or 

 so, we had collected quite a big heap of this and made a 

 capital fire. 



Here, in a pool, I shot a long- tailed duck, and Hyland 

 a willow-grouse off the grasses, for to-morrow's breakfast. 



After spending some time in writing up my diary, and 

 in copying out my route observations, I set to work to 

 collect every stick I could lay hands on for the morrow's 

 fire. I worked a long time at this and wandered far. I 



