154 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIV, 



ramble. Four eggs of the wood sandpiper were brought 

 to us, aud the next day four eggs of the oyster-catcher, one 

 of which was slightly set. All that day we worked hard at 

 our eggs ; we had blown 143 in all, including the egg of a 

 peregrine falcon, which a Samoyede brought us, on the 

 27th of May. He said he found it, in a nest built on the 

 ground, containing three others, which he had the clumsiness 

 to break. At night we turned out for a breath of fresh air, 

 along the banks of the great river. During our walk we shot 

 a pair of Terek sandpipers, the first we had yet seen in Ust- 

 Zylraa. We also brought down two Temminck's stints. We 

 afterwards secured our solitary example of the little ringed- 

 plover.* I shot at it as it rose from and again alighted upon 

 a swampy, hummocky strip of tundra land. The next day 

 a peasant brought us a fine cock willow-grouse, t our first. 



* The little ringed plover (^JEgialitis 

 curonica, Gmel.) appears to be confined 

 to the eastern hemisphere, being re- 

 presented on the American continent 

 by a very nearly allied species, JEgia- 

 litis semipaimatus (Bonap.). In the 

 British Islands it is a comparatively 

 rare straggler. It frequents the rivers 

 and lakes of the three continents 

 south of about latitude 60°, but not 

 migrating so far south as South Africa 

 or Australia. Towards the northern 

 limit of its range, it is only a summer 

 visitant, and at the extreme southern 

 limit of its range it migrates north to 

 breed. In the valley of the Petchora 

 we did not shoot a second specimen, 

 and must consider the example we 



obtained as one which had accidentally 

 strayed somewhat beyond its usual 

 northern limit. 



t The willow-grouse (Lagopus albus, 

 Gmel.) is a circumpolar bird inhabiting 

 the tundras above the pine regions, 

 where cover of birch and willow is 

 to be found in the sheltered valleys. 

 In the British Islands it is represented 

 by our common red grouse, which 

 differs from the willow-grouse in little 

 beyond the fact that the latter bird 

 has a white wing, and the whole 

 plumage becomes white for the winter. 

 In winter they form themselves into 

 large flocks and migrate southwards 

 into the pine regions. 



