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common Wild Duck (Anas boschas), however, was curious, taking into consideration its almost 

 universal distribution throughout Europe and the rest of the PalEearctic Region. We did not 

 identify this latter species during the whole time of our stay on the banks of the river Petchora, 

 although Alston and I found it abundantly on the delta of the Dvina and around Archangel. 



" Not the least abundant of the Ducks which we met with in North-eastern Russia was the 

 Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis) ; but, curiously enough, we did not see them during migra- 

 tion, and only once obtained specimens before we reached Alexievka and visited the Great 

 Zemelskai tundra. On that occasion we found them in pairs, frequenting the koorias or creeks 

 and backwaters from the river, and the small lakes and pools on the islands of the delta, 

 opposite the village of Kuya. Afterwards, during our stay at Alexievka, we constantly heard 

 their peculiar cry upon a large sheet of water close to the houses, and saw them also upon the 

 lakes and pools of the different willow-covered islands upon which we landed. But they were 

 by no means so numerous upon the islands of the delta as upon the lakes of the tundra, nor can 

 we be absolutely certain that they bred upon the former. Some of the Zyriani workmen 

 employed by M. Arendt, the manager of M. Sideroff's Timber-Company at Alexievka, made 

 frequent visits to the tundra on the fast land in the neighbourhood, going over in the morning 

 and returning the same day. They and others of the workman remaining on the island brought 

 in numbers of eggs at night, which they had found during their spare hours, or in the evening 

 after their work for the clay was over. It was not always easy for us to ascertain whether these 

 eggs were obtained on the islands or on the delta ; but I am inclined to think that any eggs of 

 the Long-tailed Duck which were brought to us were procured from the latter locality in every 

 instance. On all our visits to the tundra we ourselves found the species in question the 

 commonest and most generally distributed of the family, a pair or two, often more, frequenting 

 almost every little freshwater lake or tarn, which latter are dotted up and down all over the 

 landscape, and whose name is legion. Especially abundant are these little tarns in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Yooshina river, about twenty versts down the Petchora from Alexievka, and 

 again at Stanavoialachta, the old lading port of the Company. Of all the species of Duck I 

 have ever met with, the Long-tailed Duck is the tamest and the easiest to approach. Often we 

 walked up deliberately to within thirty or forty paces, and fired at them. But the rapidity and 

 ease with which they dived was often the means of their eluding the charge of shot which 

 hurtled over the water just as they had disappeared beneath the surface. Their habits in 

 some respects resembled those of some species of Grebe, trusting often more to quickness and 

 power of diving than to that shyness and wariness which is exercised by other species. The 

 paired birds seemed to be very solicitous for one another's safety ; and if one were killed or 

 wounded, the other would repeatedly return in the face of the most imminent danger, and 

 circle round or even alight on the water beside its mate. Their solicitude for their young, as 

 with other species of Duck, was also strongly exhibited ; and the mother as the season advanced 

 and the young were hatched became much more wary and careful. If danger to the young 

 became imminent, however, she suffered her anxiety to get the better of her prudence, and she 

 became bold and fearless for herself. 



" The nests of the Long-tailed Duck were usually placed under a thick bush of stunted 

 willow (Salix glauca) upon the tundra near the edges of the lakes, as described to me by our 



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