398 FROM DUDINKA TO GOLCHIKA 



On the plains we passed many pairs of Asiatic golden 

 plover, but as I had already secured their eggs we passed 

 across the tundra to some lakes in the distance, hoping to 

 find something new. In a marsh adjoining one of the 

 lakes I shot a dunlin, the first I had seen in the valley of 

 the Yenesei. A few hours later I shot a second, and 

 secured its young in down. The old bird was in full 

 moult. On the lake two ducks were swimming ; Bill 

 took them both at one shot. They proved to be two 

 female long-tailed ducks, also a new species for my list. 

 On a bare hill overlooking the second lake I shot a pair 

 of Arctic terns, and soon after found their nest, contain- 

 ing one egg and two young in down. On a similar bare 

 place a pair of ringed plover were very demonstrative, 

 but we took no trouble to seek for their nest. We 

 caught several young Lapland buntings, and shot a shore- 

 lark in the spotted plumage of the first autumn. 



Before we returned to the ship the^gale had subsided, 

 and we hastened back to the shore. Coming down the 

 bank I found a fieldfare's nest on the ground under the 

 edge of the cliff. It contained five young birds nearly 

 fledged. I shot the female, expecting to find one of the 

 rarer Siberian thrushes. 



As soon as we got on board, at two o'clock in the 

 morning, the anchor was weighed, and^we proceeded with 

 a gentle breeze from the land. In the afternoon we 

 picked up Schwanenberg's two mates in an open boat ; 

 they were on the look-out for us, and from them we 

 learned the fate of SiderofFs schooner. The little river 

 in which she was anchored had steep banks, between 

 which the snow drifted to the depth of twenty feet. All 

 the sailors died of scurvy except the mate. Early in 

 April the pressure of the snow above, and some move- 

 ment possibly in the ice below, caused the vessel to 



