VOL. VIII.] NOTES ON CURLEW-SANDPIPER. 183 



species, which breed furthest north, are bound to be 

 more or less a shifting population. In the spring of 

 1914 exceptionally cold weather prevailed over the 

 Taimyr. In August a number of Samoyedes who visited 

 Golchika reported that east of Dickson Island the snow 

 was still lying on the tundra and the lakes never thawed. 

 In this connection it may be remarked that the Grey 

 Phalarope [PTialaropus fulicarius) — another northerly 

 ranging species which has only once been recorded at 

 Golcliika (by Mr. Popham in 1895) — was frequent there 

 in 1914, and I took five nests. Is it permissible to 

 deduce that the wintry conditions prevailing at the 

 end of June, 1914, at the mouth of the Yenesei and on 

 the Taimyr had, as it were, dammed up the stream of 

 migratory birds and compelled them to breed to the 

 south of their usual haunts ? 



