TKINGA MINUTA. 887 



turn, they will all fly back en masse, but drawn out in a "string," which swerves on its headlong course, and 

 shows the white of the under surface and then the brown of the back of the birds alternately to the spectator. 

 I have always found it shier than the Long-toed Stint; it does not readily admit of a near approach, but will 

 generally rise at a long gun-shot : when roused frorn a good feeding-spot it is loathe to alight elsewhere; and 

 I have known a large flock split up into small parties on being put up, which flew round and round, and, as I 

 passed on, reunited and settled down where they had been flushed from. They are seldom found on marshy 

 ground in Ceylon, but restrict themselves almost entirely to the mud and ooze, feeding along the edge of the 

 water when the tide is in. They associate with the Long-toed Stint, and sometimes with the Kentish and the 

 Mongolian Shore-Plovers. Their note is shrill, but not loud, and consists of two syllables, which they utter 

 constantly on the wing or w r hen rising ; their diet consists of minute shells and insects. 



Nidification. — The present species breeds in the extreme north of Siberia and Europe. Von Middendorff 

 found its nest on the 1st of July in the Taimyr country ; and in the beginning of August Dr. Finsch took its 

 eggs on the Podarata river near the Bay of Kara. It is, however, from the interesting paper of Messrs. 

 Seebohm and Harvie Brown on the birds of the Lower Petchora that we learn most about its nidification and 

 its interesting habits while breeding. These naturalists found a number of nests on the shores of, and on the 

 islands in, the " Inland Sea," an inlet of the Petchora Gulf, in lat. 68i°. A long account is given of these 

 Little-Stint discoveries, with a minute description of the geographical features of this singular region, the 

 nature of the locality, and the ground on which the nests were found ; and, notwithstanding that my space 

 will ill admit of it, I am compelled to subjoin some interesting extracts illustrative of the breeding-home of 

 this species : — " The inland sea is shut off from the Petchora Gulf, to the north of the Boluanskai Bucht, 

 except at their point of junction, by a peninsula, the seaward side of which consists of a range of sand hills 

 covered with esparto-grass, lowering towards its extremity to a gravelly sandy ridge, which latter, sweeping 

 inland in a circle, comes to a sharp point, and forms a promontory on the shore of the inland sea. Inside the 

 sand hills there is a level green meadow studded over with many small pools, and intersected by narrow 

 winding lanes of brackish and stagnant water. Many of these pools are of curious shapes, having almost an 

 artificial appearance, their edges, about a foot in height, being perpendicular and even, as if cut by a spade. 

 At the bottom, below a foot or two of water, is a deep, tenacious, bluish-black mud, which, if disturbed, gives 

 off a powerful and offensive smell. Quantities of water-plants grow on the surfaces of some of them, some- 

 times almost choking them up. It is upon the edges of the pools, and on the shores of the inland sea adjoining, 

 that the flocks of wading birds are found at feeding-time 



" The inland sea is a large sheet of water connected with the Petchora Gulf by a narrow channel between 

 the two low sand capes of Dvoinik, and is about 2h versts across in any direction. It is surrounded by a strip 

 of grassy meadow-land on a gentle slope above high-tide mark, which is from 40 to 100 yards in width, except, 

 as already mentioned, on the seaward side, where it is replaced by the level meadow with a different and 

 coarser vegetation. The whole stretch of this sloping meadow is covered with yellow grasses and carices ; and 

 here and there over its surface are diminutive plants of dwarf- willow (Salix glauca), considerable quantities of 

 wild leeks, and isolated patches of a species of Sphagnum. Surrounding this, again, is the tundra, which, in 

 some places, rises abruptly in a great wall or 8 feet high, and in others slopes gently till it meets the 

 meadow. At the latter points the vegetation of the tundra proper is found to blend with that of the meadow. 

 A ridge of bleached and weather-worn drift wood of all sizes — branches, huge trunks, and roots — lies piled up 

 close to the margin of the tundra; and small pieces are strewn over the surface of the meadow. The high- 

 tide mark at the lower edge of the meadow is, in most places, sharply defined, an abrupt bank, a foot or two 

 in height, having been formed by the action of the water. At low tide about forty yards of the black ooze is 

 exposed ; and upon this, as already noted, flocks of Dunlins, Stints, and other Waders are usually seen at 

 feeding-time. 



" The river Dvoinik runs into the inlet close to the sea, flowing from a southerly and easterly direction. 

 It is a muddy still stream, with oozy bottom ; and the tide ascends its tortuous course for several versts. The 

 tundra on either side dips sharply down, forming steep banks on the upper reaches; but these give place, near 

 its confluence with the sea, to low perpendicular banks cut through level meadow-land similar to what has 

 already been described 



