128 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



far as I know I did not see a cock bird while I was on 

 the Yenesei. While I was watching the nest, the male 

 did not come near, and later on there was no evidence 

 that both birds take charge of the young, as is the case 

 with the stints and other of the waders. However, it 

 is difficult to speak dogmatically, for the following 

 reason. As soon as the young were hatched, which 

 was about the third week in July, the curlew-sandpipers 

 came down from the uplands of the tundra into the 

 marshes, and while the chicks were still in down they 

 united into small parties. This tendency to flock to- 

 gether during the breeding season was a remarkable and 

 suDfgestive feature of the bird life of the tundra. It 

 also made it very difficult to take a census of the 

 number of pairs breeding in a certain district. Until 

 the middle of July the birds seemed scarce, for they 

 were scattered over a wide area, and their behaviour 

 at the nest was so quiet that it was possible to walk 

 across the nesting-grounds and not notice them at all. 

 All this was altered when several broods met in the 

 marshes, for the old birds then became very demon- 

 strative, and the species seemed to be twice as abundant 

 as before. There is no doubt that the young were 

 brought to these places, and were not hatched there. 

 On 15th July I carefully quartered one small bog while 

 looking for little stints' nests, and there was not a sand- 

 piper to be seen. A week later two birds appeared, 

 and, judging by their behaviour, they evidently had 

 young ones close at hand, though whether they were 

 both females or a cock and hen I cannot say. After- 

 wards I repeatedly met little parties like this in the 



