SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. IV. 



station, however, where there was no village, a draught-board 

 of very rude construction evidently served to while away the 

 long winter evenings. Several times during the journey we 

 saw Samoyedes, or Syrian i, sledging along with their rein- 

 deer, and in many places the snow was ploughed up some 

 distance from the road, showing that the reindeer had been 

 seeking for food. As we neared Ust-Zylma we passed several 

 of the chooms, or reindeer-skin tents, of these curious people 

 by the roadside. During the greater part of the journey 

 few birds were to be seen. In the villages magpies were the 

 commonest birds, and occasionally we saw a few pigeons, 

 hooded crows, and tree-sparrows. On the banks of the river 

 flocks of snow-buntings were common. In the forests we saw 

 a few capercailzie. 



At Umskia, where we were fortunately detained six hours 

 for want of horses, there was an abundant supply of birds. 

 This station is a solitary house on the banks of the 

 Petchorski Pizhma, about fifty-four versts from Ust-Zylma. 

 The great attraction for birds in this place was doubtless 

 the hole in the ice of the river, which had to be kept open 

 to supply the station with water, and the dung which the 

 horses dropped during the few hours they fed and rested out- 

 side the station. We shot five Siberian jays,* and had 



' * The Siberian jay (Perisoreus in- 

 faustus, Linn.) has not been met with 

 in the British Islands. It is a resident 

 bird even in the coldest districts which 

 it inhabits, extending across the eastern 

 hemisphere from the Arctic circle in 

 Scandinavia, as far south as latitude 

 60. Eastwards it ranges as far as 

 Kamtchatka, and in the valley of the 



Yenesay extends southwards to lati- 

 tude 50. In the valley of the Pet- 

 chora we did not observe it farther 

 north than latitude 66. After the 

 autumn moult these birds seem to be 

 half feathers; light fluffy feathers 

 only one remove from down, which 

 must render them capable of resisting 

 any amount of qold. 



