A SUMMER ON THE YENESEl 27 



(Turdus atrigularis) and the pintailed snipe breeding 

 near Imbatskaya, and I was therefore disappointed that 

 I had no opportunity of bird's-nesting there. However, 

 on the following day, I went ashore for an hour or two 

 in the evening at Markova, a small fishing village 

 farther down the river. A pair of oyster-catchers, the 

 only ones that I saw on the Yenesei, were paddling 

 about, almost in the street. A thrush whose note was 

 then unknown to me was singing among the thick 

 willows, and I spent about half an hour out of a 

 precious two hours in trying to stalk it, but in vain. 

 I afterwards knew it to be the Siberian thrush (T. 

 sihiricus). I then left the willow thicket, and went into 

 the spruce woods at the back of the village. Redwings 

 were breeding there in some numbers, but there was 

 little undergrowth for other small birds, and those that 

 there were had gone to roost. Presently, however, a 

 thrush that was no redwing bounced out of a low 

 spruce tree. I shot her as she fluttered through the 

 branches, and was pleased to find that she was the 

 black- throated thrush, a species whose eggs were first 

 taken on the Yenesei by Mr. Popham.^ The nest was 

 built between four and five feet from the ground, close 

 to the trunk of a low spruce tree, and was stoutly made 

 of twigs, dry grass, and mud, like that of a blackbird. 

 It contained five eggs. A little farther on another pair 

 of the birds were evidently breeding, but they kept out 

 of shot, and while I was looking for the nest, the 

 steamer hooted its hideous warning, and I had to give 

 up the search. 



1 H. E. Dresser, The Ibis, July 1901, 



