CHAP. iv. SNOW-BUNTINGS. 29 



possesses very little value, and hundreds of cartloads are 

 annually deposited on the steep banks of the river, where no 

 doubt it is washed away when the river rises with the floods 

 caused by the sudden melting of the snow in May. The 

 snow-buntings were also frequently seen round the hole in 

 the ice on the river, where the inhabitants of Mezen obtained 

 their supply of water. In both places the boys of the village 

 had set white horsehair snares, and seemed to be very 

 successful in their sport. At this time of the year these 

 birds are fat and are excellent eating. We were told that 

 in a fortnight they would be here in much greater numbers, 

 and would be sold for a rouble the hundred, or even less. 

 None of the birds we got were in full summer plumage, yet 

 they looked extremely handsome as they ran along the snow 

 like a wagtail or a dotterel, or fluttered from place to place 

 with a somewhat scattered, butterfly kind of flight. We 

 occasionally saw them hop, but they generally preferred to 

 run. The most interesting fact which we observed was that 



O 



the snow-bunting occasionally perches in trees. We saw 

 two in the forest, one of which perched in a spruce fir. 



We found jackdaws very numerous at Mezen, but Piottuch 

 told us that it is only during the last four or five years that 

 this bird has been seen in this neighbourhood. He said that 

 it is now a resident there. Piottuch in the days of his exile 

 lived some years at Mezen, and had a considerable circle of 

 acquaintance there, who made merry on the occasion of his 

 revisiting them. 



We left Mezen on Sunday morning at nine, glad to get 

 away, as Piottuch's old friends were too many for him, and far 



