346 A BUSY WEEK ON THE KUREIKA 



and the Siberian stonechat, and what I took to be the 

 house-martin. Several pairs of the latter arrived, and 

 were soon busily hawking for flies and occasionally- 

 examining their old nests. I shot a couple, so that I 

 might have tangible evidence of the existence of this 

 bird in the valley of the Yenesei. A few weeks later 

 they swarmed in countless thousands, and I might easily 

 have obtained a score at a shot. The reader may there- 

 fore imagine my disgust when on my return home I 

 found that my two birds were not the common house- 

 martin after all, but a nearly-allied species, Pallas's 

 house-martin [Hirundo lagopodd), a bird so rare that 

 the British Museum did not possess a specimen of it, 

 and that besides my two skins the species was solely 

 represented in the British Islands by a unique skin 

 from Japan in the Swinhoe collection. 



The fine weather continued on the following day, the 

 river went on rising slowly, the Kureika ice stopping the 

 way ; it scarcely made a verst the whole day. 



There were very few birds. The shore-larks were 

 all gone. Only a few stray Lapland buntings were left. 

 Now and then a plover or a pair of sandpipers paid us 

 a short visit. The martins had a large accession to their 

 numbers, and flew round the house like a swarm of bees. 

 It was now possible to plough our way through the 

 forest ; for the snow was very soft, and melting rapidly. 

 Bluethroats and willow-warblers were the principal song- 

 sters. The simple notes of the redwing, the unobtrusive 

 song of the Little bunting, and the cheerful call of the 

 Siberian chiffchaff, were also very frequently heard. 

 Both the double snipe and the pintail snipe were common 

 enough. A couple of white-tailed eagles flew over about 

 noon. Now and then a few late swans passed over, but 

 the geese seemed to have all gone to their breeding- 



