312 THE CHANGING SEASONS 



in natural history almost as much guided by instinct as 

 those of birds. The Ostiak is a hunter. In the winter 

 he lives in the forest and hunts birds to eat, and fur- 

 bearing animals to provide the means of obtaining meal 

 and tobacco from the Russian peasant-merchant, and to 

 satisfy the claims of the Russian tax-gatherer. In summer 

 he migrates to the banks of the great river to catch fish, 

 in which operation he is very expert. Our new neighbour 

 seemed very poor. He had no reindeer, and arrived 

 with a couple of dog-sledges. His dogs were a queer 

 mongrel lot, and seemed half- famished. He soon cut 

 down some slender birch-trees and erected his choom, 

 exactly on the pattern of the Petchora Samoyedes. He 

 covered it with rolls of birch-bark, carefully sewn together 

 with reindeer-sinew into broad sheets, which wound 

 diagonally round the choom. On the day of his arrival 

 the wind was west, and for the first time since our arrival 

 the sky was cloudy. I had a long round through the 

 forest, but only shot a single bird, a three-toed wood- 

 pecker. We had then been a fortnight in our winter 

 quarters. My second week was not a very successful one 

 ornithologically ; I certainly added another fifty skins to 

 my plunder, but only two new species to my list. 



The 8th of May was the first day on which there was 

 any sign of thaw in the shade. What little wind there 

 was came from the south-west, but the air was raw and 

 chilly. I did not go into the forest, but on the banks of 

 the river I fired into a flock of snow-buntings, in order 

 to find Glinski something to do, and killed six. Six more 

 ran away wounded over the snow. They were pursued 

 and caught by the Ostiak children, who carried them to 

 their father, who was chopping firewood near the choom. 

 The snow-buntings were then divided amongst the partv, 

 rapidly plucked, and greedily eaten, warm, raw, and bleeding! 



