168 STANAVIALACHTA REVISITED 



small eggs of the common wild swan. The eggs appear 

 to vary very little in shape. 



That afternoon I took a walk on the island, armed 

 with my walking-stick gun. Birds were extremely tame. 

 The yellow-headed wagtail seemed more abundant than 

 ever. Reed buntings also were common. I got a shot 

 at a swan, but the distance was a trifle too great. The 

 weather was very hot, and the mosquitoes were swarm- 

 ing. Our home-made mosquito veils proved a great 

 success ; they and our cavalry gauntlets just made life 

 bearable in these Arctic regions ; still we longed for 

 the cold winds back again to expel the plague of 

 blood-sucking insects. Veils are necessary evils, but 

 they interfere sadly with work, and much increase the 

 difficulty of finding the shot birds among the long 

 grass. 



The next morning a swan's egg made us an excellent 

 omelette for breakfast, after which I turned out for half 

 an hour amongst the willows to shoot a few yellow-headed 

 wagtails. They abounded on the marshy ground. I also 

 secured two or three redpolls, some reed buntings, and a 

 phalarope. 



We set sail at noon, with a north-east wind, to visit 

 the tundra eight or ten versts higher up the great river. 

 For some distance before we landed the coast was very 

 fl-it, with willows down to the water's edge. Amongst 

 these dwarf trees we repeatedly heard our two especial 

 favourites, the Petchora pipit and the Siberian chiffchaff. 

 As soon as we got beyond the willows we landed on the 

 tundra, and started in pursuit of a large flock of Buffon's 

 skuas, but were soon stopped by a pair of grey plovers, 

 which showed by their actions that we were near their 

 nest. We lay down as before, forty or fifty yards apart, 

 and watched the birds. They ran about, up and down, 



