426 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 



this. Just about fifty yards south of Bewick Lakes, Hyland shot at 

 and crippled in a pond a male long-tailed duck which we had been 

 stalking. We had to leave it after all, for it dived away among the 

 ice-floes among which I feared old Sailor, who had plunged in before we 

 could stop him, would lose his life. As he fired, two swans, one of 

 which I had just got my glass to bear, rose and flew off. I just noticed 

 that the second rose from the top of a big mound. I had not dared to 

 talk, and could not signal to Hyland. We were on opposite sides of 

 the pond. I knew them for Bewicks by their character and small size. 

 I had not time to identify them by the head. They made no call as 

 they went. The mound was a nest about 2 ft. 6 in. in height and 

 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter at the base. [It was perfectly smooth and 

 symmetrical, tapering till the circular top was no more than about two 

 feet across.] This structure was entirely composed of little bunches of 

 green moss, with the exception of a very little lichen, and a chance bit 

 here and there of short light dead grass pulled up with the moss ; of 

 course there were no green grasses or reeds as yet, and not a single 

 piece of dead reed had been used. There was a thin lining only to the 

 nest of dead grass mixed with a little down. Some, but not nearly all 

 of the moss, had been pulled up near the nest, which was situated on a 

 dry place, rather grassy than mossy, till one looked close. There were 

 three uncovered eggs in the nest, and a broken one lying on the ground 

 beside it. Of these three I took two, hoping that the birds would 

 continue laying. I wish I had covered up the egg, but I hardly liked to 

 do so. Three skuas (S. crepidatus) had flown off from near by as we 

 approached. We left, and having gone a very short way, turned, and, 

 looking towards the swan's nest, saw an Arctic skua sitting ominously 

 about on some tussocks near it, and when we looked again it was sitting 

 on the edge of the nest and hammering downwards. So deep was the 

 nest that the bird as it hit on the egg almost went out of sight. Had it 

 not been for my anxiety to return I should have gone back, but it was 

 just at the critical moment of the change in the wind.' 



The eggs I have exactly agree in texture and measurement with those 

 of Bewick's swan as given in Yarrell. 



I have also described the killing of the young swans with bows 

 and arrows on August 10. The beaks of those birds were of a light 



