204 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap xvii. 



the islands, but prefers a drier situation on the tundra, upon 

 some sloping bank, overlooking a river or a lake, and 

 sheltered by dwarf birch or willows. We first paid a visit 

 to the marshy ground and saw there many dunlins, Lap- 

 land buntings, and red-throated pipits ; one of the latter was 

 carrying in its bill a caterpillar at least an inch long. Our 

 next resort was to the river's sandy banks, where we found a 

 ring dotterel's nest. We then visited the Button's skua 

 ground. The large flock had left, but about a dozen re- 

 mained behind. We watched them for an hour, and shot 

 one. They were mostly hawking up and down the moor, 

 occasionally resting on the ground. Suddenly, a skua uttered 

 its alarm note ; it sounded as if we had approached too near 

 its nest. I whistled for my companion to come, and we 

 lay down, about 120 yards apart, for an hour. The skua 

 did not run about on the ground, but kept uneasily flying 

 from one spot to the other, seldom remaining long in one 

 place. One spot, however, it visited four times, and rested 

 longer in it than in the others. The third time it visited it 

 I made up my mind the nest was there, and carefully ad- 

 justed my gun on a hillock to cover the spot in case I lost 

 it. The fourth time the bird visited it, Harvie-Brown and 

 I got up together, each followed our bearings, and in about 

 a minute we crossed each other at the nest, in which were 

 two eggs. The bird was near at hand, shamming lameness 

 to attract our attention. My companion walked up to it 

 and shot — to our disappointment and disgust, not a BufFon's 

 skua, but a Richardson's skua. After this we turned our 

 attention to the grey plover ground. We found one of our 



