A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 143 



the tundra it is possible to distinguish the two species 

 by their calls ; and he shot a bird with parti-coloured 

 axillaries which has been pronounced to be intermediate 

 between the eastern and western forms, but as far as I 

 know, I never met with anything but Charadrius 

 fulvus at Golchika. 



The eggs hatch out about 20th July, and as in the 

 case of the curlew-sandpiper, as soon as the chicks are 

 old enough to run over the tundra, the parents take 

 them into the swamps, where, as they fledge, flocks are 

 gradually formed. On 1st August I explored a piece 

 of marshy land which lay about twenty versts from 

 Golchika. In a patch of ground of not more than a 

 quarter of a mile square, I counted no fewer than five 

 pairs of golden plover, the same number of curlew- 

 sandpipers, and many little stints. The latter for the 

 most part kept aloof and flocked only with their own 

 kind, but the sandpipers and plovers associated freely. 

 Little anxious parties made up of two or three of both 

 species swooped wildly over the marsh ; and I frequently 

 observed on this, as on other occasions, that no sooner 

 did a plover alight on a tussock than a sandpiper 

 pitched beside her. The two stood side by side, crying, 

 for a minute or two, and then dashed off" together 

 to another perch. The bond between two species 

 so distinct was very interesting and even remarkable. 

 The wick-wick-wick of the curlew-sandpipers put all the 

 plover on the qui vive at once, just as the melancholy 

 klee-ee or kee-a-ko of the plover sent the sandpipers 

 buzzing all over the breeding-grounds in hysterical 

 "wisps." 



