CHAP. XII. 



THE RUFF. 



house-roof, or perch upon the slender branches of a willow- 

 tree hard by. 



The same day I saw again the barn-swallow, which seemed 

 to be the only representative of its species at Ust-Zylma. I 

 watched a flock of shore-larks and Lapland buntings on the 

 stubble. As a rule they ran along the ground like the 

 wagtail, but I also marked both birds hopping for some 

 distance. 



For the first time, on Sunday, 30th of May, the Petchora 

 was free from ice. The steady march-past of the frozen 

 blocks had lasted just one week. The wind that day was 

 warm, blowing from the south, but the sky was cloudy. A 

 peasant brought us three young Siberian jays, and another 

 rowed across the river, the bearer of a ruff,* the first we 

 had yet seen ; and of some eggs, six duck's eggs, doubt- 

 less those of the pintail, and four of the hooded crow. 

 The following day the warm south wind continued, with 

 sunshine and cloud. We took a long round in the valley, 

 where a few days before we had seen so many Siberian 

 ohiffchaffs. The blue-throated warblers were singing lustily, 

 but we failed to hear or see the bird we were specially in 

 search of. As we were making our way home, through a 



* The ruff (Machetes pugnax, Linn.) 

 is confined to the eastern hemisphere. 

 In the British Islands it is rapidly 

 disappearing before the advance of 

 cultivation and drainage, and is now 

 rarely met with except on the spring 

 and autumn migrations. It breeds 

 throughout Northern Scandinavia, 

 Holland, and North Germany, win- 



tering in Africa as far south as the 

 Cape. Eastwards it breeds throughout 

 Siberia as far as the valley of the 

 Yenesay, wintering in India and Ceylon. 

 The records of its occurrence in China, 

 Japan, and Kamtchatka appear to be 

 doubtful. In the valley of the Petchora 

 we found it as far north as latitude 



