A GOOD DAY'S WORK 159 



behaved exactly as those we watched the day before. 

 After the female had crossed and recrossed one hillock 

 many times, and finally disappeared behind it, I made up 

 my mind that the nest was there, and rose. My sudden 

 appearance alarmed the male, who flew up, showing his 

 black axillaries very distinctly in the evening sunshine as 

 he skimmed over my head. We then all three rose, and 

 in less than a minute met at the nest, which contained 

 three eggs. I sat down to pack the eggs ; and Harvie- 

 Brown followed the male, who came up as we found the 

 nest. Whilst I was packing the eggs and warming my 

 hands, and talking " pigeon- Russ " with the man, the 

 female came within range, and I took up my gun and 

 shot her, thereby completing the identification of the 

 eggs. On our return home we found that Cocksure had 

 sent word that the swan had not revisited her nest as yet, 

 and begged one of us to go to relieve guard. My 

 companion accordingly, after a substantial meal, set off 

 at midnight ; meanwhile the men we employed to help us 

 brought in the results of their day's work : a red-throated 

 diver, trapped on the nest, with two eggs ; half a dozen 

 phalaropes' eggs, a duck's nest, containing seven large 

 olive-grey eggs, with down which was almost black. 

 These, they assured us, were the eggs of the bolshaya 

 tchornaya ootka (the great black duck). We recognised 

 them, however, to be the same as those our Samoyede 

 had brought home on the 2nd, and on which he had shot 

 a female scaup. The next take was a long-tailed duck's 

 nest, with five eggs. Then a man came in bringing us 

 four small nests of malenkya peteetza (small birds), a 

 sedge-warbler's, a red-throated pipit's and two willow- 

 warblers'. 



The men who had collected these spoils were in 

 the employment of the Company, to whom belong the 



