84 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. VIII. 



showed us the skin of an eagle-owl.* The next evening we 

 strolled out on the banks of the Petchora. Brilliant sun- 

 shine flooded the earth, not a cloud was in the sky ; but it 

 was cold and winterly as Christmas. Flocks of magpies and 

 of hooded crows were almost the only birds we saw. They 

 passed us on the wing, evidently going to their resting-places 

 in the woods. 



The week had not brought us many birds, but we knew 

 summer was at hand, and we waited patiently. Meanwhile 

 we mingled with the inhabitants of Ust-Zylma and observed 

 their ways. Sunday seemed among them a day devoted to 



the young birds to get away. They 

 have found out by axperience that it is 

 of no use to shoot one of the birds before 

 they have begun to breed; because in 

 such case the survivor finds another 

 mate in a few days. They shoot or 

 snare the cock-bird as soon as they can 

 after the hen has begun to sit. In the 

 neighbourhood of the nest are little- 

 rocky elevations on the ground, which 

 the cock-bird uses as feeding-places, 

 and which are . easily found by the 

 feathers of young grouse and other 

 small birds scattered round them. Upon 

 these knolls traps are set, and as soon 

 as the cock-bird is caught, the hen is 

 easily shot off the nest. For several 

 successive years I have seen this done, 

 and taken the eggs myself, but curiously 

 enough, in the summer of 1872 no 

 merlins appeared in either locality. 

 The only way in which to account for 

 the selection every year of the same 

 locality by a fresh pair of birds seems 

 to be to suppose that the merlins mi- 



grate en inassef and that as they pass 

 each recognised breeding-place, if the 

 former occupants are not there to take 

 possession, another pair immediately 

 occupy it. The facts of the case seem 

 to warrant the conclusion that the 

 selected sites for breeding are well- 

 known to a large circle of merlins; 

 otherwise it is difficult to account for 

 the choice always falling upon the 

 same site, out of an indefinite num- 

 ber ■ of, others apparently equally 

 eligible. 



* The eagle owl (Bubo maximus, 

 Flem.) has almost become extinct in the 

 British Islands, but is still a resident 

 in the mountainous districts of most 

 parts of Europe, and is occasionally 

 found in North Africa. F.astwards it 

 is found throughout Siberia and China, 

 and has been met with in the Himalayas. 

 We did not meet with this owl in the 

 valley of the Petchora, but twice saw 

 skins of birds of this species shot at 

 Ust-Zylma. 



