CHAP. IX. 



SWANS. 



93 



any we had yet seen. Birds of prey appeared in unusual 

 numbers. We saw hen-harriers, both male and female, 

 numerous merlins, which often perched upon the heaps of 

 manure in the fields, and for the first time we saw a peregrine 

 falcon.* Piottuch was fortunate enough to shoot a fine 

 snowy owl on the goose ground, between the Petchora and 

 the Zylma. A hard frost in the night, followed by a cold 

 east wind, with bright sunshine, was most unfavourable to 

 the arrival of migratory birds. We were deliberating as to 

 what would be the least unprofitable mode of spending the 

 clay, when the Preestaff sent in to inquire if we would join 

 him and the postmaster in an excursion four-and-twenty 

 miles up the Petchora to shoot geese. These were the two 

 " swell chasseurs " of Ust-Zylma, and we accepted their invi- 

 tation gladly. We ordered a horse and sledge, packed up 

 provision, tents, and wraps, and were soon en route. 



About halfway we descried two swans on the snow of the 

 Petchora. We started our sledge in pursuit, approaching 

 the birds in a spiral curve, we came within range, fired, and 

 missed. The birds, very large and very white, flew about a 

 verst across the river, and again alighted. Here they were 

 joined by a third swan. Slowly again we crept up in a 

 spiral curve within range; this time two rifles fired, and 



* The peregrine falcon (Falco perc- 

 grinus, Tunst.) is a circumpolar bird 

 still found in Great Britain, although 

 rapidly becoming extinct. It breeds 

 more or less regularly in every country 

 in Europe, and winters in Africa, occa- 

 sionally straying as far south as the 



Cape. It also breeds throughout Asia 

 and North America, wherever suitable 

 localities are found ; and has been found 

 in winter as far south as the Argentine 

 States of South America. In the valley 

 of the Petchora we met with it breeding 

 in latitude 66° 



