A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 139 



Jcoureet ! " A thorougli little Siberian, he wanted, not 

 sugar, but cigarettes ! 



Before he was out of sight the bird was back at the 

 nest, for this trick of sending an ally away from the 

 tent is one which seldom fails to deceive even the 

 wariest of fowl. But the Temminck's stint was un- 

 usually shy, and at each exposure the click of the 

 shutter drove her away with a flash of small dagger- 

 grey wings. Then followed a wearisome time of waiting, 

 while she flew round and round the tent and tried to 

 find out what the sound-maker inside might be. She 

 never flew directly on to her eggs, but always alighted 

 a little distance off" and ran up in little zigzag rushes 

 between the willows. Her small grey body and jerky 

 movements made her seem more like a mouse than a 

 bird. Here again I am taking the bird's sex for granted, 

 and yet, as I did not secure this stint, I have no idea 

 whether it was a cock or a hen. This case illustrates 

 pretty well the limitations of photography as a hand- 

 maid to ornithology. Enthusiasts sometimes claim that 

 the camera has revolutionised the field-study of birds, 

 and this is so to a certain extent ; but what can be said 

 for the scientific value of a record which does not even 

 prove the sex of the original ! Bird photographers are 

 too apt to take it for granted that the bird at the nest 

 is necessarily the female, and each year a number of 

 pictures are published, definitely titled as to sex, 

 without any more proof than that the observer "judged 

 by its behaviour that the bird was the female." If such 

 workers could be persuaded to use the gun in connection 

 with the camera for a season, it would perhaps shake 



