PREFACE. vii 



hope that the ornithological part of his little work 

 may also interest the general reader. However dry 

 the technical part of the subject may be considered, the 

 study of Field Ornithology is a branch of Natural 

 History which has always been a great favourite 

 with Englishmen, Foreign writers may have pro- 

 duced more scientific works upon the subject ; but 

 the peculiarity of English ornithological research 

 has been that, to a large extent, it is the work of 

 amateurs, who make it a labour of love, whilst on 

 the Continent most ornithological writers have been 

 professional men connected with the various mu- 

 seums. An English ornithologist often begins by 

 being a sportsman and ends by being a naturalist ; 

 and if closet natural history has been until perhaps 

 quite recently carried to a higher point of scientific 

 accuracy in Holland, Germany, and France, the 

 British ornithologists, both of our own Islands and 

 in India, have done the best field-work. 



The results of our visit to this ultima Thule of 

 Europe must be taken for what they are worth. We 

 had no hair-breadth escapes to record, and our 

 adventures may appear somewhat tame to a member 

 of the Alpine Club ; but the conditions of life in 

 Siberia in Europe are so entirely different to those 

 observed by the ordinary tourist, that our travels 



