296 FROM GOKTCHAI TO LENKORAN. 



golden plover, but of this I am by no means sure. 

 So much struck was I by the strange sight which 

 this enormous passage presented, that I stayed the 

 greater part of the day to watch it ; and when at 

 last I left, the almost inconceivable flood of winged 

 creatures was still rolling on over the steppe from 

 west to east in undiminished numbers. The Rus- 

 sian ponder which I bought at Tiflis had turned 

 out so badly, that at this time I had almost given 

 up using it for anything larger than teal, and even 

 then it was necessary to be at very close quarters 

 to bring the bird to bag, so miserably weak was it. 

 Thanks, however, to the dense masses in which the 

 bustards stood and flew, I was enabled to secure 

 sufficient to supply my man and myself with u 

 welcome change of diet, by the expenditure of only 

 two of my treasured ' express ' cartridges. Judging 

 by what I killed, 1 should say the birds were only 

 just starting from their summer haunts in the 

 Crimea and Caucasus for their winter quarters in 

 the East. Had it not been so, they would hardly 

 have been as deliciously plump as we found them. 

 Hut whilst watching the bustards we had let 

 the day slip through our hands, and to our intense 

 disgust we found we could not reach Salian that 



o 



night ; so we had to content ourselves with the last 

 post-station on the road thither, where we slept. 

 In the early morning I went down to the river, 

 "lad to see the Kur au'ain. if it was only for the 



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