A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 137 



cemetery beside the AntonofFs' house. Even where the 

 two species bred side by side there was never any 

 difficulty in distinguishing the nests. That of the little 

 stint, as a rule, was lined with dry willow leaves, while 

 that of the Temminck's stint was finished with grass- 

 bents. The eggs too are quite distinctive, although I 

 took two clutches of little stints' eggs which approached 

 to the type of Erolia temminckii. 



When we came to Golchika the Temminck's stints 

 were courting. It was a very pretty performance. 

 The bird (he or she — the stints make no distinction of 

 sex) took wing suddenly, and spun away down the river 

 bank with a high shrilling call : Trrrrrr. Sometimes 

 it sank down, tired out by the spring ecstasy, but more 

 often it circled round slowly, head to wind, and hovered 

 for a while with rapidly vibrating wings and throat. 

 When a number of birds thus hung poised in the air 

 the effect was very charming. It seemed as if they 

 were so much in love with one another, and with the 

 day, that a sudden rapture lifted them above the 

 common earth and impelled them to take wing. At 

 such times they were fearless of man, but later on, when 

 the eggs were laid, they became rather shy. 



On 16th July I pitched my hiding-tent beside a 

 nest with three eggs among some scrub willows. It 

 was impossible to disguise the tent in any way, for 

 there was no material at hand to cover it. I was 

 obliged to enter it in all its nakedness, and hope that 

 the green cover would not offend the eye of the 

 lady stint. However, a three hours' wait among the 

 mosquitoes was quite fruitless. The bird flew wildly 



