134 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



from the surface. After watching this performance 

 several times, I came to the conclusion that the water 

 was just too deep to allow the bird to reach the mud 

 at the bottom. Therefore, by the circular movement 

 of her body, she created an eddy which sucked the 

 floating matter to the surface, just as by stirring a tea- 

 cup with a spoon it is possible to draw the tea leaves 

 to the top. 



Golchika is a great stronghold of the little stint. 

 The morning after our arrival at the island I saw at 

 least a dozen of these pigmy dunlins feeding round the 

 house in company with a few Temminck's stints. The 

 latter were fractious, waspish little things, who chased 

 away any other bird which trespassed too close to their 

 own particular puddles ; but the little stints were much 

 too busy to squabble. Each was guzzling away as if 

 his life depended upon it. And so it did, and not only 

 his own life, but the life of the race also, for the 

 summer was short, and eggs must be laid and hatched, 

 and chicks reared into strong-flighted birds all in the 

 space of eight weeks. Most small birds, especially the 

 waders, have an intensely solemn demeanour. Perhaps 

 it is their long beaks, reminiscent of patriarchal beards, 

 that gives them such a ludicrously staid expression. 

 The little stint is the most serious of them all, and 

 exceeds both the dunlin and the snipe in gravity. His 

 deportment would be becoming in an archdeacon. 



I found the first nest on 3rd July beside a little 

 lake. The bird rose quietly and alighted again at a 

 little distance. I had watched stints behaving like 

 this for the past four days, and had searched in vain 



