CHAP. xxi. BUFFON'S SKUAS. 281 



lay a few yards off, when suddenly, down there flew upon it 

 a couple of Buffon's skuas, who quarrelled over it, and 

 carried it off before I could wade through the mud to the 

 rescue. 



After securing the owl, I carried my trophy home in 

 triumph, overtaking my companion by the way. On reach- 

 ing the wreck, we finally settled the question of evening or 

 morning. We satisfactorily established that it was the 

 former, so we dined and went to bed again. 



The next day the gale continued, but there was some 

 sunshine, and the cold kept the mosquitoes at bay. I spent 

 my morning superintending the cooking of the swan our 

 men had brought the preceding day. Meanwhile Harvie- 

 Brown went out to the far end of the inland sea, and got 

 a little distance from the spot where we had found the last 

 nest of the little stint: he came upon two more. We had 

 by this time twenty of these birds' eggs; all miniature 

 dunlins' eggs, and like them, varying in colour. These two 

 nests were not built on the tundra proper, but on the little 

 stints' feeding-ground ; a flat sandy strip of land on which 

 grew short grass and bunches of a thick-leaved yellow 

 flowering plant, sprinkled here and there with dried-up or 

 drying pools, and upon which drift-wood lay scattered in 

 all directions. The tundra stops at some 150 yards from 

 the seashore, and this stretch of feeding-ground lies between 

 it and the water's edge. 



After lunching on the baked breast of the swan, I returned 

 to the wreck, but by a different route to that which my 

 companion had taken. I took the boat across to the north 



