344 A BUSY WEEK ON THE KUREIKA 



and snow melt. Indeed many birds, as we have seen, 

 in too great a hurry to reach their breeding-grounds, 

 overshoot the mark, and, finding no food, are obliged to 

 turn back. Any little oasis of land in the vast desert of 

 snow, like the cleared ground between the house and the 

 ship, is soon full of birds, and I found myself in a favour- 

 able situation for noting the new arrivals, some of whom 

 were almost sure to be attracted by the black spot, and 

 to drop down to feed. I was constantly running in and 

 out, and made an excellent bag. Unfortunately our 

 position did not command a good view of the chief 

 stream of migration, which appeared to follow the main 

 valley of the Yenesei. There were no bare hills in the 

 neighbourhood from which to watch, and our house stood 

 on a small patch of cleared ground surrounded by forest 

 except on the river side. Very few large flocks of birds 

 passed over, and those which visited us appeared to 

 be stragglers from the great line of migration. They 

 stayed a few hours to feed, hurried on again, and fresh 

 stragglers took their places. The day's bag, however, 

 added four new species to my list ; the yellow-breasted 

 bunting (Emberiza aureola], the ruff, the sand-martin, and 

 Middendorffs reed-bunting (Emberiza passerina). In 

 addition to these novelties, I secured four Asiatic golden 

 plovers and a couple of dusky ouzels. The latter were 

 singularly tame compared with the fieldfare and redwing, 

 both of which were common but very wild. In the evening 

 I added a fifth bird to my list, namely the dotterel. 



For three days we had seen no snow-buntings, but 

 shore-larks and Lapland buntings were still common. A 

 few swans and geese passed over, and ducks were flying 

 about in all directions. 



All day the wind was north and north-west ; and the 

 river rose more than it had ever done in one day before. 



