CHAP. xvr. NESTS. 191 



half-a-dozen cartridges in trying to secure them, and had at 

 last to leave them baffled in the attempt. My companion 

 and I returned to the charge on the following day ; but again 

 we were defeated. A mile up the river, however, we found 

 a second eyrie upon an exactly similar green-topped mound. 

 The nest contained three eggs, and the behaviour of the 

 birds, as we neared it, was the same as had been that of the 

 falcons of the day before. My companion succeeded in 

 shooting the male. We found many nests of other birds. 

 Our Samoyede in the morning brought us one of the black- 

 throated diver, containing two eggs, and in the course of the 

 day we found a second. We also secured nests of the golden 

 plover, long-tailed duck, wheatear, Temminck's stint, blue- 

 throat, and Lapland bunting; in the latter were young 

 birds. Our most interesting find, however, was the nest, with 

 two eggs, of Richardson's skua, placed on a tussock of 

 mossy ground. It was lined with some reindeer moss and 

 leaves of the surrounding plants. The devices of the birds 

 to deceive us, as we came near it, attracted our attention 

 and revealed its vicinity. They often alighted within fifteen 

 yards of us, shammed lameness and sickness, reeled from 

 side to side as if mortally wounded, then when we persisted 

 in our onward course they flew boldly at us, and stopped 

 repeatedly. 



We again saw the dotterels, but apparently not yet 

 nesting. Willow-grouse were as plentiful on this part of 

 the tundra as red grouse on the Bradfield moors on the 

 12th. Their white wings, their almost entirely white bodies, 

 made them very conspicuous objects. They usually rose 



