232 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIX. 



company here, and I heard later that feeling ill, the effects 

 probably of irregular meals and sleep, he soon after returned 

 to the ship, having met with nothing of interest, except the 

 grey plovers, and a few BufTon's and Kichardson's skuas, 

 and also picking up the feathers of a snowy owl. 



After leaving him I went on for about a quarter of an 

 hour, then finding the tundra " flat, stale, and unprofitable," 

 I turned sharp to the north, towards what I took to be a 

 large lake, but which in the maps is set down to be a bay of 

 the sea. En route I saw nothing but an occasional Lapland 

 bunting or red-throated pipit. Arrived at the water's edge, 

 however, I spent an interesting hour. A large flock of sand- 

 pipers were flying up and down the banks. They looked very 

 small and very red ; and, in order to watch them, I hid amongst 

 Fome dwarf willows, teeming with mosquitoes. I did not 

 heed their bites, for my hopes and doubts and fears made me 

 for the time mosquito-proof. Presently some birds swirled 

 past, and I gave them a charge of No. 8. Three fell three 

 little stints* the real Simon Pure at last. I now waited a 



* The little stint (Tringa minuta, 

 Leisl.) was one of those few birds 

 which "we did not meet with at Ust- 

 Zylma on migration, and one whose 

 eggs we looked upon as one of the 

 great prizes which might possibly be 

 within our reach on this trip ; authentic 

 specimens being unknown in any collec- 

 tion ; the only examples known to have 

 been obtained having been procured by 

 IVIiddendorff on the Taimyr River in 

 Siberia in latitude 74. This species 

 breeds only on the tundras beyond the 



limit of forest growth, probably from 

 the North Cape in Norway to the 

 valley of the Yenesay. It passes the 

 shores of Great Britain in both seasons 

 on migration, but is much more nume- 

 rous in autumn than in spring. It 

 winters in North and South Africa and 

 India. In Eastern Siberia its place is 

 taken by a nearly allied species Tringa 

 albescens (Temm.) which differs in 

 summer in being much more chestnut 

 on the throat, and may be recognized 

 at all seasons by its longer tarsus. 



