162 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



Prokopcliuk declared that the snowy owl and the 

 willow-grouse sometimes lingered until October. 



One of the most interesting little facts connected 

 with the autumn migration at the river's mouth was 

 the appearance of a number of young bluethroats of the 

 year during the first week in August, and they haunted 

 the river banks and balagans until the end of the 

 month. Mr. Popham^ also mentions that he saw 

 young birds at Golchika in August. As far as I know, 

 the bluethroat does not breed north of Pustoy, which 

 is a hundred miles higher up the river. It seems as 

 if with this species there was a tendency among the 

 young birds of the year to perform a wholly meaning- 

 less migration to the north. The fact w^ould not 

 perhaps be worth remarking if there was not some 

 slight evidence that the young of some other species 

 travel northwards during the few weeks that pass 

 between their flio;ht from the nest and the time that 

 they must join in the great autumnal migration to the 

 south. What can be the purpose of such wanderings 

 when neither weather nor hunger press the birds to 

 move ? Is it possible that the call of the north, which 

 has been answered so many, many times in the life of 

 the race, can meet with a response thus early in the 

 life of the individual bird ? I wonder if it is so. 



^ Ibis, 1897, vol. iii. 



