394 FROM DUDINKA TO GOLCHIKA 



with mosquitoes, and full of birds. In sheltered places 

 dwarf willows and creeping birch were growing, and (we 

 were only some fifty versts from the forests) here and 

 there a few stunted larches. Winding through the tundra 

 was the track of what had once been the bed of a river, 

 but was now a small deep valley forming a chain of 

 isolated lakes and pools. This river-bed is called the 

 dried-up Dudinka, and is about fifty versts to the north- 

 west of the real river Dudinka. On some of the northern 

 slopes large patches of snow were still lying. 



Most of the birds evidently had young. As we 

 approached we each found ourselves the centre of attrac- 

 tion of a little feathered crowd, whose constituents uttered 

 various alarm-notes as they flew round, or waited upon 

 some shrub or plant with bills full of mosquitoes, anxious 

 to feed their young as soon as the coast was clear. I 

 noticed the bluethroat, the red-breasted pipit, the shore- 

 lark, the Little bunting, and great numbers of Lapland 

 buntings, redpolls, and yellow-headed wagtails. A willow- 

 grouse was sitting upon nine eggs. I took a red-necked 

 phalarope's nest with four eggs ; a pair of Bewick's swans 

 had evidently a nest somewhere in the neighbourhood ; 

 several pairs of golden plover and wocd-sandpipers were 

 considerably alarmed at our invasion of their breeding- 

 grounds. The Arctic willow- warbler, the common willow- 

 warbler, and the Siberian chiffchaff were all in full song, 

 and I repeatedly heard the Siberian pipit. Several pairs 

 of fieldfares had nests, and I found one containing young 

 birds. Near the shore a pair of ringed plover and 

 several pairs of Temminck's stints were very demonstra- 

 tive, but my attention was devoted to more attractive 

 game. Upon a steep sloping bank, covered with patches 

 of dwarf birch and willows, and overlooking a flat willow- 

 swamp close to the shore (which had evidently once 



