CHAP. in. INTENSE COLD. 



21 



splendid plumage. The next commonest bird was certainly 

 the hooded crow. They were remarkably tame. In the 

 market we sometimes saw half-a-dozen perched at the same 

 time on the horses' backs, and we could almost kick them 

 in the streets. They are the scavengers of Archangel. 

 Pigeons were also common, now wild, but probably once 

 domesticated. They look like rock-doves, a blue-grey, with 

 darker head and shoulders, two black bars on the wing, and 

 a white rump ; but in some the latter characteristic is want- 

 ing. These pigeons are never molested, and are evidently 

 held to be semi-sacred, like those in the Piazza di San 

 Marco in Venice, or in the court of the Bayezidieh mosque 

 in Stamboul. Jackdaws, ravens, and magpies were frequently 

 seen. In the woods we found the mealy redpole, the 

 marsh tit, an occasional bullfinch, a pair of lesser spotted 

 woodpeckers, and a solitary hawfinch. Some white-winged 

 crossbills and waxwings were brought alive into the town, 

 but the peasant who had the waxwings asked eight roubles 

 a pair, so, of course, we did not buy them. We were told 

 that these birds were common near Archangel until towards 

 the end of November, when they disappear as the weather 

 becomes more severe. 



During our stay in Archangel we had considerable changes 

 in the weather. Soon after our arrival it was very cold, and 

 on one or two occasions we noticed the thermometer as low 

 as 27 below zero. If the weather was windy we felt the 

 cold keenly, but at the lowest point there was not a breath 

 of wind, and wrapped up in our furs we suffered from nothing 

 but an attack of icicles on the moustache. Occasionally we 



