432 ICE-BOUND ON KOLGUEV 
long time and sending Hyland round also with his gun, I had to 
give it up. There is no possibility of confusing this with the golden 
plover, even when on the wing. The call is quite different, and I 
think the flight more powerful, and that is saying a good deal. The 
skuas stood no chance with them. They actually seemed to both of 
us to hit the skuas, wheeling round them and then, making a point 
high above, they would drop down like a stone, literally knocking the 
skuas out of time. The nest was a deep circular depression, and 
contained nothing but the eggs and a little lichen.’ 
In another nest on July 13 the eggs contained fully formed young 
ones. From August 10 onwards there were immense flocks of these 
birds constantly wheeling over the mud-flats. These birds behave very 
differently at different times when nesting. Sometimes the hen-bird 
feigns lameness, though I never saw the male do this. Often, however, 
their actions exactly recall those of the stone-curlew, excepting that we 
never found a male brooding the eggs. The male bird, who always sits 
on some raised point at a little distance from the hen, gives, long before 
you come up, an alarm signal to the hen, whereupon she runs off the 
nest and joins him. The breasts of the males we shot were all equally 
black, but those of the females varied a great deal. 
Strepsilas interpres (LINN.). Turnstone. 
Severnaya-Kamnesharka (R.). Ta-tk (S.). 
June 17. ‘Turnstones were, especially near the lakes, fairly numer- 
ous. I am sure from their behaviour that some of the pairs had nests, 
though we failed to find them. They were singing a very charming 
little song which went, as I took it down at the time, ‘Chiwah chiwah 
chiwééki, ki ki ki, ki ki’ 
During the nesting season these birds are distributed far inland. 
On July 12 I found four tiny young ones which ‘ran out of the nest in 
all directions.’ The turnstone, like many of the waders, makes several 
scrapings or false nests before it finally lays. 
While the reindeer-salting was going on at Scharok during the first 
week in September, a pair of these birds were constantly occupied in 
turning over the contents of the deers’ paunches which lay about. 
