70 LIFE IN UST-ZYLMA 



eighty kopecks from one of our friends the Samoyedes 

 who had shot them with ball. Hazel-grouse {Bonasa 

 betulina) were also frequently brought to us, at twenty 

 kopecks per brace. They are most delicate eating, and 

 are considered by many to be the finest game that can 

 be brought to table. 



Winter returned on the 4th of May, when a raw west 

 wind brought a heavy storm at noon, after which snow 

 and bitter cold continued, with occasional high wind, till 

 the 8th. We went out, notwithstanding, struggling on 

 snow-shoes across deep ravines and through bushes and 

 plantations. We also made an excursion within the 

 island in search of birds. For some days the snow- 

 buntings remained outside the town in such immense 

 flocks that when they rose the whirring of their wings 

 could be heard at some distance. On the 6th the 

 snow drove them back into Ust-Zylma, also small parties 

 of redpolls, which follow the buntings very much as 

 starlings follow rooks. When we first met with the 

 flocks of snow-buntings we found them to consist princi- 

 pally of males, but as the season advanced the females 

 largely predominated. On the 4th of May we saw a 

 white-tailed eagle and a hen-harrier, and on the following 

 day we had an excellent sight of a merlin. Magpies 

 were as abundant as ever, but, like the snow-buntings, 

 they had moved into the country, and on the 5th we dis- 

 covered a nearly completed nest in a spruce fir, built 

 about five feet from the ground. The birds were most 

 vociferous, and used every artifice to decoy us away from 

 their property. 



On the 8th of May summer seemed farther off than 

 ever. On the previous day the weather had been very 

 changeable— alternately warm, snowing, hailing, sleeting, 

 with an occasional gleam of sunshine, and a cold wind, 



