426 IGE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
this. Just about fifty yards south of Bewick Lakes, Hyland shot at 
and crippled in a pond a male long+tailed duck which we had been 
stalking. We had to leave it after all, for it dived away among the 
ice-floes among which I feared old Sailor, who had plunged in before we 
could stop him, would lose his life. As he fired, two swans, one of 
which I had just got my glass to bear, rose and flew off. I just noticed 
that the second rose from the top of a big mound. I had not dared to 
talk, and could not signal to Hyland. We were on opposite sides of 
the pond. I knew them for Bewicks by their character and small size. 
I had not time to identify them by the head. They made no call as 
they went. The mound was a nest about 2 ft. 6 in. in height and 
4 ft. 6 in. in diameter at the base. [It was perfectly smooth and 
symmetrical, tapering till the circular top was no more than about two 
feet across.] This structure was entirely composed of little bunches of 
green moss, with the exception of a very little lichen, and a chance bit 
here and there of short light dead grass pulled up with the moss; of 
course there were no green grasses or reeds as yet, and not a single 
piece of dead reed had been used. There was a thin lining only to the 
nest of dead grass mixed with a little down. Some, but not nearly all 
of the moss, had been pulled up near the nest, which was situated on a 
dry place, rather grassy than mossy, till one looked close. There were 
three uncovered eggs in the nest, and a broken one lying on the ground 
beside it. Of these three I took two, hoping that the birds would 
continue laying. I wish I had covered up the egg, but I hardly liked to 
do so. Three skuas (S. crepidatus) had flown off from near by as we 
approached. We left, and having gone a very short way, turned, and, 
looking towards the swan’s nest, saw an Arctic skua sitting ominously 
about on some tussocks near it, and when we looked again it was sitting 
on the edge of the nest and hammering downwards. So deep was the 
nest that the bird as it hit on the egg almost went out of sight. Had it 
not been for my anxiety to return I should have gone back, but it was 
just at the critical moment of the change in the wind.’ 
The eggs I have exactly agree in texture and measurement with those 
of Bewick’s swan as given in Yarrell. 
I have also described the killing of the young swans with bows 
and arrows on August 10. The beaks of those birds were of a light 
