HAZEL-GROUSE 307 



the women wear nothing on the head, but the men tie 

 a handkerchief round the brow, and when I asked the 

 reason of this custom, I was told that a man must not 

 expose his hair. 



In the afternoon I had a long round on snow-shoes, 

 but saw only half a dozen birds. Four of them were 

 pine grosbeaks ; I was chasing the fourth when I saw a 

 large bird stretch its neck out from a well-leaved branch 

 of a pine-tree, and immediately draw it in again. I 

 could not see anything, but I fired at the foliage, and 

 down tumbled a hazel-grouse. Shortly afterwards I 

 caught a momentary glimpse of another alighting in a 

 distant pine. I carefully stalked it, but although my 

 snow-shoes made noise enough on the frozen crust of the 

 snow, as soon as I doubled in full view of the tree, the 

 bird remained standing on a conspicuous branch within 

 easy shot. The birds turned out to be male and female, 

 and were the first hazel-grouse I had seen. I saw a 

 solitary nutcracker in the forest, but these were the only 

 birds I came across during a ramble of four hours, except 

 close to the house, where a flock of snow-buntings, half 

 a dozen nutcrackers, and a pair of crows were constantly 

 to be seen. In the evening I bought a coat of a 

 Tungusk. He could not speak Russian, but he tried to 

 make me understand that he was Tungusk and not 

 Ostiak by showing me his hair. It was brushed back 

 and tied in a knot at the neck like an incipient pigtail. 

 He gave me to understand that the Ostiaks wore their 

 hair loose and tumbling over their forehead. 



On the 4th of May the weather still showed no sign 

 of change. A burning hot sun was trying to thaw the 

 snow. An icy cold nor'-wester was freezing it again 

 directly. I shirked the cold morning, and got one of the 

 sailors to take me in the dog-sledge a couple of miles up 



