WINTER QUARTERS OF THE THAMES 



CHAPTER XXX. 



WAITING FOR SPRING. 



Scarcity of Birds Arrival of Ostiaks Snow-spectacles Ostiak Dress- - 

 Poverty of the Ostiaks Schwanenberg goes in search of Graphite Osiiak 

 Ideas concerning the Covering of the Hair Hazel-grouse Difference of 

 Tungusk and Ostiak Hair-dressing The Weather Superstition about 

 shooting Crows A Token of coming Spring Scarcity of Glass Double 

 Windows Geographical Distribution of the Samoyedes Of the Yuraks 

 Of the Ostiaks Of the Dolgans Of the Yakuts Of the Tungusks. 



ON the ist of May a long round in the forest, with a 

 cool wind and a burning hot sun, did not result in much 

 more than so many hours' practice on snowshoes. In 

 one clump of spruce-fir I got a couple of pine grosbeaks 

 and a pair of Lapp-tits. In another I shot a three- toed 

 woodpecker and a nuthatch, letting the tits go by. I 

 picked up an odd tit afterwards, saw another pine gros- 

 beak and a few black-game, which complete the list of 

 all the birds I saw in six hours. Every excursion I made 

 impressed upon me two facts the scarcity of birds and 

 the gregariousness of the few there were. 



