( 202 ) 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING-HABITS OF THE 

 LIITLE STINT. 



BY 



MAUD D. HAVILAND. 



(Plate 4.) 



At Golchika, at the mouth of the Yenesei river, where 

 I had the opportunity of observing it in the summer of 

 1914, the Little Stint {Erolia m. minuta) is not only 

 common, but is also one of the most widely distributed 

 of the waders. The Golden Plover nest on the tundras, 

 the Phalaropes breed in the marshes, and the Tem- 

 minck's Stints breed by the water side ; but the Little 

 Stint is ubiquitous, and the bird may be found every- 

 where in the district, except only in such places as are 

 either very wet or very dry — though there are few 

 enough of the latter at Golchika in July when the snow 

 is melting. 



At the end of June, the birds which had not yet begun 

 to breed, and had probably arrived only recently from 

 the south, were common on the snow-drifts round the 

 houses, where they fed in company with many Temminck's 

 Stints. The latter were rather shy and quarrelsome, 

 and each one drove any other bird from his own 

 particular puddle, but the Little Stints were very quiet, 

 and so tame that they scarcely troubled to trip out of 

 the way of the sledge dogs which wandered about the 

 settlement. 



On July 1st and 2nd, I noticed sohtary birds in such 

 patches of marshland as were already free from snow, 

 and I spent a good deal of time in looking for eggs ; 

 but it was not until July 3rd that I flushed a bird from a 

 nest in a little marsh on the left bank of the Golchika 

 river. The bird drooped his wing as he ran away, so I 

 sat down to watch him, and in half a minute he returned 

 to the eggs. 



After that, between July 3rd and July 17th, I found 

 a good many nests. The birds were very partial to the 



