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the breeding-plumage. Lapland and Snow-Buntings we very frequently shot out of trees; 
Terek’s Sandpiper and Temminck’s Stint are very fond of perching even upon slender willows, 
as is also the Wood-Sandpiper. We frequently saw the common Snipe on the summit of a larch; 
and Harvie-Brown shot one in my presence from a slender twig at the top of a larch at least 
fifty feet from the ground; but our astonishment at the unusual perching habits of birds reached 
its climax when we both stood and stared for some minutes at three common Gulls perched near 
the top of a lofty birch tree, whose summit rose high above the surrounding trees. ‘This habit 
may gradually have arisen from the fact that whilst these birds are on migration a great part of 
this country is under water from the floods produced by the sudden melting of two or three feet 
of snow. In the year 1875 spring began on the 8th of May, and on the 16th we had summer. 
During these eight days the great river Petchora, at Ust Zylma, a mile and a half wide, rose 
thirty feet in height, and the islands near the mouth of the delta were almost all flooded; and 
in many places as we sailed down the river we could see the land more or less under water for 
miles. 
“In the delta we made our head quarters at Alexievka. The water-mark on the walls of 
the houses was at least four feet from the ground. After the water has subsided the island is 
one vast swamp covered with willow bushes, full of lakes and with here and there an open 
swamp or marsh. Here we found the Petchora Pipit by no means uncommon, but for some 
weeks we were unable to add another specimen to our collection. ‘The birds sang as usual in 
the air, but dropped into the willow-swamps. Even if we had attempted to shoot them in 
descending it would have been a hopeless case to retrieve them afterwards. As the summer 
continued, the hot sun, day and night, soon dried up the swamps, and many birds used to come 
to the shore of the river to feed. It was impossible for us to recognize many of the species of 
small birds through our mosquito-veils; and consequently our shore-shooting at this time of the 
year was very haphazard. Nevertheless we succeeded in adding three more skins of the Petchora 
Pipit to our collection. 
“We had five of their nests brought to us during the last week in June and the first week 
in July. The eggs were all fresh; and we may probably conclude that this bird breeds a little 
later than the Red-throated Pipit, as most of the eggs of the latter bird, taken at the same time, 
were considerably incubated. We did not meet with the Meadow-Pipit in the same locality, or 
otherwise we might have had some difficulty in distinguishing large varieties of its eggs from 
those of the Petchora Pipit. Five seems to be the full number. They measure 23 by 23 inch, 
some a shade larger, others slightly less. The ground-colour is almost entirely obscured by small 
brown or grey spots. ‘These occasionally form a darker ring round the large end. Most of the 
eggs have one or two black spots or streaks at the large end. The nest is slightly different from 
that of the Red-throated Pipit. Instead of being composed of fine round grasses, it is made of 
flat-leaved grass and water-plants and small leaves; and in two of them we found dwarf Equiseta. 
We did not meet with this bird further north than the neighbourhood of Alexievka.” 
The only specimens of this Pipit I have examined are the five examples brought back by 
Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown, which they have apportioned out as follows, the specimen 
in my collection being the one I have described and figured: —Mus. H. HE. Dresser; Mus. H. 
Seebohim; Mus, J. A. Harvie-Brown; Mus. A. Newton; Mus. Howard Saunders. 
