A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 131 



called for such a revolution in the order of the sexes, 

 and what the goal of such natural experiments may be. 



Classificatory systems have sandwiched the 

 phalaropes between the plovers on the one hand and 

 the snipes on the other, but when seen swimming the 

 birds sit high in the water like little sea-gulls, and the 

 only limcoline things about them are their grey mantles 

 picked out with buff. When they run, as they love to 

 do, over the spongy sphagnum, their gait has the quaint, 

 perky dignity of the moorhen. 



I found the first nest which contained fresh eggs on 

 8 th July, on the island at Golchika. It was within 

 fifty yards of a ramshackle balagan which had just 

 been taken over by some fisherfolk ; and it was lucky 

 that I found it when I did, or else the people, or more 

 probably their dogs, would certainly have done so. 

 The cock bird drew my attention to the place by flying 

 round anxiously while he uttered his drrrt-drrrt. 

 This note is like that of the red-necked phalarope, but 

 is shriller and quite recognisable where the two species 

 breed side by side. I sat down and watched him for 

 twenty minutes, and at the end of the time he ran on 

 to the nest, which was hidden in the grass like that of 

 a redshank. 



On the following day I flushed a cock bird from four 

 eggs on the other side of the island. This nest was in 

 a much drier situation ; nevertheless, the eggs lay upon 

 a good platform of dry grass, for the bird's instinct 

 taught him to raise them as high as possible above the 

 wet ground. I resolved to photograph this phalarope 

 at the nest, so I returned to the house and fetched my 



