WINTER. 



53 



1. Hooded crow. 



2. Raven.* 



3. Magpie. 



4. Tree-sparrow. 



5. Siiow-bunting. 



6. Meuly redpole. 



7. Yellow-hammer. 



8. Capercailzie. 



9. Hazel grouse. 



— certainly a very meagre list. Notwithstanding such a 

 bad bei^inning, we did not feel disheartened, but laid all 

 the blame on the weather. We could not help smiling at 

 our alarm in Arr-hangel lest summer should come before we 

 could reach the Petchora. Nearly three weeks had gone 

 by, and summer and the summer birds seemed as far off as 

 ever. The thaw made no progress. Sometimes it was hot 

 enough in the sun in the daytime, and the glare of the 

 sunshine on the white snow forced us to wear snow spec- 

 tacles, but it always froze again at night, and if a few days' 

 sunshine made any impression on the snow, a raw cold day, 

 with a high wind and a more or less heavy fall of snow, 

 made everything look and feel as winterly as before. 

 Piottnch went over to Ishma with M. Znaminski, but did 

 not shoot a bird. He told us that he saw two birds of prey, 

 most likely hen harriers, and M. Znaminski informed us 

 that we must not despair, as a swan had been seen flying 

 over. 



* The raven (Corvus corax, Linn.) is 

 a circumpolar bird rapidly becoming 

 extinct in England, though still breed- 

 ing in some numbers in Scotland. It 

 is a resident species throughout Europe, 

 but is not found in Africa. Eastwards 

 it extends throughout Asia from the 



Himalayas northwards, being replaced 

 in China and Japan by a nearly allied 

 species, Corvus japtmends (Bonap.). It 

 appears to range throughout the con- 

 tinent of America as far south as North 

 Mexico. In the valley of the Petchora 

 we found it as far north as latitude 68^. 



