448 BRITISH BIRDS. 



flights in the air to catch a gnat upon the wing. Presently I heard a plaintive 

 weest, which reminded me of Heligoland ; and on shooting the bird I picked 

 up a Yellow-browed Willow- Warbler, as I expected. There was quite a 

 little party of these diminutive creatures ; and they were so tame after their 

 long journey that I watched them for some time hopping from twig to 

 twig, diligently searching for food ; I was often within four feet of one of 

 them, and could distinctly see its white eye-stripe and the two bars across 

 its wing. 



For twelve days more the ice was still passing up and down the river, 

 and migratory birds arrived at the rate of five new species a day. The 

 snow melted rapidly; the river, three miles wide in this latitude, rose 

 seventy feet in height ; and wood-anemones, marsh-mallows, pansies, &c. 

 were in full bloom. 



At last the final march-past of the beaten winter forces, in their fourteen 

 days' battle, took place ; and for seven days more the ragtag and bobtail 

 of the great Arctic army came straggling down the Koo-ray'-i-ka worn 

 and weather-beaten little icebergs, dirty ice-floes, that looked like floating 

 mudbanks, and straggling pack-ice in the last stages of consumption. 

 Winter was finally vanquished for the year ; and the fragments of his 

 beaten array were compelled to retreat to the triumphant music of 

 thousands of song-birds, and amidst the waving of green leaves and the 

 illumination of gay flowers of every hue. 



But although the Yellow-browed Warbler was thus early in arriving, it 

 did not appear to be in any hurry to commence breeding- operations. It 

 soon became very common, frequenting almost exclusively the pine-forests 

 on the banks of the Koo-ray'-i-ka and the Yen-e-say'. It was not particu- 

 larly shy ; and on more than one occasion I watched it for some time at a 

 distance of only a few feet. On one occasion only I heard it make any 

 attempt at a song ; this was on the 21st of June. The bird was perched 

 upon the extreme summit of a spruce, and stood shivering its wings, uttering 

 a few plaintive notes, most of them poor and feeble variations on its call- 

 note. On the 26th of June I was fortunate enough to find its nest. 

 Curiously enough I was this time also in company with a Heligolander, 

 Mr. Boiling, the ship-builder of Yen-e-saisk'. Late in the evening we 

 were strolling through the forest between the Koo-ray'-i-ka and the Yen- 

 e-say'. As we were walking along a little bird started up near us, and 

 began most persistently to utter the well-known cry of the Yellow-browed 

 Warbler. As it kept flying around us from tree to tree, we naturally came 

 to the conclusion that it had a nest near. We searched for some time 

 unsuccessfully, and then retired to a short distance, and sat down upon a 

 tree-trunk to watch. The bird was very uneasy, but continually came back 

 to a birch tree, from which it frequently made short flights towards the 

 ground, as if it were anxious to return to its nest but dare not whilst we 



