igo 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



in \r. xvi. 



cold, with occasional attempts at rain ; yet we saw many 

 birds. The red-throated pipit was by far the commonest. 

 My companion shot a meadow-pipit from a tree, and caught 

 another sitting on its nest. We saw several golden plover, 

 a flock of seven or eight Buffon's skuas, a pair of dotterel,* 

 one or two shore-larks, besides securing the nest of a bean- 

 goose containing two eggs. On the grassy top of a mound, 

 halfway down the mud cliffs overlooking the great river, and 

 within sight oi the Arctic Ocean, I came upon the eyrie of a 

 peregrine falcon. It contained four eggs, one of which was 

 much lighter in colour than the others. This mound had 

 probably been used for some years as a nesting-place by the 

 falcons, since the grass was much greener upon it than upon 

 the surrounding places. A little way off there rose another 

 mound, just similar to it, and this was apparently the falcons' 

 dining-table, for scattered all about it were feathers of 

 grouse, of long-tailed duck, and of divers small birds. 



While I remained near the nest, the two falcons hovered 

 around, uttering sharp cries; when I approached nearer still, 

 they redoubled their screams, hovered over me, closed their 

 wings, and descended perpendicularly till within a few yards 

 of my head. Their movements were so rapid that I wasted 



* The dotterel (/.' 

 Linn.) is one of those birds which are 

 not found easl of the Himalayas and 

 the watershed between the Yenesayand 

 the Lena. In the British Islands it is 

 principally known as a spring and 

 autumn migrant, a few only remaining 

 to breed on the Cumberland and Scotch 



mountains, [ts great breeding-grounds 

 are on the grassy hills on the tundras, 

 beyond the limit of forest growth. In 

 the rest of Europe, South-Western 

 Siberia, and Turkestan it passes through 

 on migration, wintering in Persia and 

 Africa north of the equator. 



