118 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
as possible, in a quiver of suppressed excitement, like a 
cat preparing to spring. 
There were two eggs in the nest when we found 
it at last. 
The Lapland bunting is a little yellow-billed bird, 
with a black throat and a white boa, which never nests 
with us, and has only been taken some half a hundred 
times in England. But it is a very common bird indeed 
on the tundra, and, with its plaintive little piping note, 
was our constant companion. 
But luncheon-time came, and again we cooked a willow- 
grouse in a moss fire, and again with successful result. 
While I was sitting down and sketching the scene a 
couple of geese flew over. I snatched up my gun and 
dropped one of them. It was a male bean-goose, and 
I am afraid the parent of the egg I found early in the 
morning. 
We had never before found such a pleasant camping 
ground as this. 
From the little crevice in which we lay ran two dry 
gullies, down which we could walk unseen to the pools 
in which they ended. 
~ In one of these I shot a male long-tailed duck. He 
had a very good tail, but was otherwise disappointing, for 
his head was dark. So we ate him. Indeed, since 
we left the sea, we have not seen a single male of this 
species in full plumage. 
I have grown as tired of writing, as you, I am afraid, 
