386 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



It may be worth noting that up to this time the 

 Golden Plover shot by us have in each instance some of 

 the axillary feathers splashed faintly with brown or smoke- 

 colour, and one which Seebohm shot has one feather 

 quite darkly marked with the same colour. Hitherto we 

 have only noticed the double note of the Grey Plover 

 before described. We have yet to discover if it also 

 utters the single note as in the case of the Golden 

 Plover. 



Some parts of the tundra here are very beautiful. It is 

 simply a vast undulating moor covered on the tops with 

 Reindeer moss, green moss, and grasses, and black crow- 

 berries, and in the hollows and by the sides of the 

 numerous little pools and tarns, with thickets of low 

 scrub, and dwarf willow and birch. Small streams a foot 

 or two in width and the same or more in depth, often unite 

 these little tarns, and by the side of one of these, in an 

 opening amongst willow-scrub, I found quite a little forest 

 of the aureola plant (Veratrum album), marsh marigold, 

 golden saxifrage, a dwarf geranium, various grasses and 

 plants I am, unfortunately, not acquainted with, and a 

 quantity of wild, broad-leaved sorrel, on which latter I 

 made a good feast. On little mounds near the lochsides 

 immense numbers of dried and withered Arctic Bramble 

 leaves are scattered, showing what a rich feast one could 

 have had last season ; and amongst these cranberries are 

 plentiful. Owing to the continuation of cold winds this 

 summer it is predicted that we shall have few Arctic 

 brambles, and the show of blossom is certainly very small. 



On one of the little lakes I saw two male Scaups, two 

 pairs of Long-tailed Ducks, a Black Scoter, a pair of Bean 

 Geese, a pair of Wigeon, and a Black-throated Diver. 



I fired at and wounded a Red-breasted Merganser, the 

 first we have seen, and a new addition to our list. 



A pair of Larus cachinnans had a nest on a small 



