156 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XIV. 



the fieldfare, the little bunting, and the willow-warbler 

 comiuon. We saw a solitary sand-martin.* The peasants 

 at Habariki had collected eggs for us ; some of the redwing, 

 the redstart, the hooded crow, and of various ducks. The 

 best nest contained eight eggs. It had been found by two 

 boys, who had divided the eggs and the down between them. 

 Four of these eggs, cream-coloured, of a smaller size than 

 ■the pintail's, were first brought to us, and with them some 

 white down. The lad who brought them said he had found 

 the nest in the old stump of a tree ; and the fragments of 

 rotten wood scattered in the down seemed to corroborate his 

 statement. We then sent for the other sharer of the spoil ; 

 he had already sold the eggs, along with another duck's nest 

 containing six eggs. On our inquiry as to what he had 

 done with the down, he immediately went off for it, and soon 

 brought it to us. It was white down containing small frag- 

 ments of wood, the exact counterpart of the other portion 

 in our possession. We found, however, that the down 

 of the second nest was mingled with it. We had no dif- 

 ficulty in separating it, for it was brown, and evidently that 

 of the pintail. Ultimately we purchased the batch of ten 

 eggs from Sideroff's manager, who had bought them from 



* The sand-martin {Cotyle riparia, 

 linn.) is an inliabitant of both hemi- 

 spheres, being found northwards up to 

 and occasionally north of the Arctic 

 Circle, the southern limit of its breeding 

 range being North Africa, Central Asia 

 and North China, and the southern 

 states in North America. It probably 



winters somewhere in Southern Africa, 

 and is known to do so in India and 

 Brazil. In the ralley of the Petchora 

 we did not find it farther north than 

 latitude 67 J°. In the British Islands it 

 is an abundant summer visitant, breed- 

 ing in most sand-banks, both inland and 

 on the sea-coasts. 



