A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 59 



willows. It was probably this thrush and not the 

 redwing that Seebohm found breeding here in 1877. 

 Common snipe continually bleated overhead, and the 

 lakes were full of red- and black-throated divers. 

 Temminck's stints were abundant, but I did not see 

 the little stint above Golchika, and this is probably its 

 most southerly breeding-place on the Yenesei. 



I saw a pretty sight beside a pool. A pair of 

 red-necked phalaropes, male and female, were standing 

 on the snow with their dainty little blue feet just 

 dabbled in the water, while they mutually preened 

 each other's neck plumage with a loving concern that 

 was very amusing to watch. Of course my wretched 

 human intrusion broke up the picture. There was a 

 cry of alarm, and then nothing but a circle of ripples 

 to show that two beautiful and contented creatures 

 had been there only a moment before. How often 

 does the bird-watcher wish that he owned the cap of 

 darkness of the fairy-tale that made its wearer invisible. 



I was disappointed not to find the mountain 

 accentor at this place, but on the return journey in the 

 autumn I saw several birds. Breokoffsky is one of the 

 known breeding-places of the Bewick's swan upon the 

 Yenesei, and presently six of these magnificent birds 

 flew leisurely across the island, I was watching the 

 play of the sunlight on their huge wings, when a gun 

 was fired near at hand and drove them down the creek 

 at the rate of eighty miles an hour. I turned my 

 glasses on the place, and discovered a sporting-looking 

 individual whom I had no difliculty in recognising as 

 the ship's cook, who had been last seen at Turukhansk, 



