48 BRITISH BIRDS. 



also in hand, and in about an hour succeeded in shooting the female. The 

 third nest was found by the Samoyede. This time I lay down behind a 

 ridge some thirty yards from the nest, and after waiting a quarter of an 

 hour caught sight of the bird on the top of a distant tussock. Presently 

 she ran nearer to another ridge, looked round, and then ran on to the 

 next, until she finally came within fifty yards of where I was lying. I had 

 just made up my mind to risk a shot when she must have seen me, and 

 flew right away. In a quarter of an hour I caught sight of her again, 

 approaching by short stages as before, but from an opposite direction. 

 I must have been in full sight of her. When she had approached within 

 fifty yards of me, as near as I could guess, I fired at her with no. 4 shot 

 and missed. I remained reclining where I was, with little hope that she 

 would make a third attempt to approach the nest, and whiled aAvay the 

 time with watching a Buffon's Skua through my glass as it cautiously 

 approached in my direction. Turning my head round suddenly I caught 

 sight of the Grey Plover running towards the nest within fifty yards of 

 me. I lifted my gun and fired again, but was so nervous that I missed 

 her a second time. I was so vexed that I got up 'and walked towards 

 the Skua, which still remained in statu quo. I missed a shot at it too, 

 spent some time in a vain search for its nest, and returned to my old 

 quarters. In ten minutes I saw the Grey Plover flying up. It wheeled 

 round in my direction, coming almost within shot, and evidently took 

 stock of me, and satisfied itself that I was a harmless animal practising 

 with blank cartridge, having no evil design upon its eggs. It alighted 

 about fifty yards beyond the nest, and approached less timidly than before. 

 When it came within fifty yards of me I fired, this time with no. 6 shot, 

 and laid the poor bird upon its back. As we returned to our boat Harvie- 

 Brown found a fourth nest, and, after watching as before, secured the 

 bird. We accidentally broke two of the eggs belonging to the third nest, 

 but reached Alexievka at midnight with fourteen identified Grey Plover's 

 eggs. Two sittings were quite fresh, and made us an excellent omelette for 

 breakfast the next morning. The other two were very slightly incubated. 



From the 25th to the 28th of June we made an excursion to Stanavialachta, 

 some forty versts lower down the river. The tundra in this locality was 

 more hilly, and we did not find any of the dead flat bog which the Grey 

 Plover frequents ; consequently we did not meet with any of these birds ; 

 but the Golden Plover was common enough, and we took two of its nests. 



On the 3rd of July we took advantage of a cold north-east wind, which 

 banished the mosquitoes for a time, to cross over to the tundra again to 

 renew our search for Grey Plover's eggs. We soon heard the note of the 

 birds of which we were in search, and saw two or three, but could not 

 discover any signs of their having a nest. After our previous experience 

 we decided to vary our tactics. Hitherto we had found the nests by sheer 



