CHAP. viir. BIRDS. 81 



8th. We went out, notwithstanding, struggling on snow- 

 shoes across deep ravines and through bushes and plan- 

 tations. We also made an excursion within the island, in 

 search of birds. For some days the snow-buntings remained 

 outside the town, in such immense flocks, that when they 

 rose the whirring of their wings could be heard at some 

 distance. On the 6th, the snow drove them. back into Ust- 

 Zylma ; also small parties of redpoles, that follow the 

 buntings very much as the starlings follow rooks. 



When we first met with the flocks of snow-buntings we 



C5 



found them to consist principally of males, but as the season 

 advanced the females largely predominated. On the 4th 

 of May we saw a white-tailed eagle and a hen harrier,* and 

 on the following day we had an excellent sight of a merlin. 

 Magpies were as abundant as ever, but, like the snow- 

 buntings, they had moved into the country, and on the 5th 

 we discovered a nearly completed nest in a spruce fir, built 

 about five feet from the ground. The birds were most 

 vociferous, and used every artifice to decoy us away from 

 their property. 



On the 8th of May summer seemed farther off than 

 ever. The day before the weather had been very change- 

 able alternately warm, snowing, hailing, sleeting, with an 

 occasional gleam of sunshine, and a cold wind, but on the 



* The hen harrier (Circus cyaneus, 

 Linn.) has not yet been exterminated 

 by the gamekeepers from the British 

 Islands. It breeds in the Arctic and 

 north temperate regions of Europe and 

 Asia, visiting South Europe principally 



in winter, at which season of the year 

 it is found in North Africa as far south 

 as Abyssinia. It also winters in Persia 

 and India and South China. In the 

 valley of the Petchora we found it as 

 far north as latitude 68. 



G 



