CHAP. XIV. 



LONG-TAILED DUCK. 



171 



a pintail, shooting the bird as she was flying off. We found 

 also those of the red-necked phalarope, the great snipe, and 

 the reed-bunting. Our most exciting nest-discovery v^as 

 that of a swan. It was a large nest, containing three eggs, 

 made of coarse grass, lined with a little down and a few 

 feathers. It was placed upon a bank between two marshes, 

 half concealed by willow-scrub. The most interesting birds 

 we shot were a black scoter, a herring-gull, and a long-tailed 

 duck,* the first we had yet seen on our travels. Its cry was 

 not unlike the word " colguief." Of all species of ducks, it 

 is the tamest and yet one of the most difficult to shoot, for 

 it is an expert at diving, and eludes the sportsman's aim by 

 its rapid and repeated plunges under the surface of the 

 water. 



Just before reaching Alexievka, we anchored for an hour 

 at another island, about which seven swans were sailing. 

 The graceful birds, howevei-, did not give us the chance 

 of a shot. Upon this island we had an excellent view 

 of our first great black-backed gulls,t and also of Buffon's 



* The long-tailed duck {Harelda 

 glacialis, Linn.) is a circumpolar bird, 

 breeding north of the Arctic circle, 

 principally on the tundras above the 

 limit of forest growth. In the British 

 Islands it is only a winter visitant, 

 being found also in various parts of 

 Central Europe, rarely, if ever, stray- 

 ing as far as the basin of the Mediter- 

 ranean. The Siberian birds appear 

 to winter in Japan and in America ; it 

 wanders down to the great central 

 lakes and to similar latitudes on both 



coasts. In the valley of the Petchora 

 we found it as far north as latitude 

 68^°, but it was one of the few birds 

 we met with which escaped our notice 

 at Ust-Zylma during the period of mi- 

 gration. These birds probably do not 

 fly across country, but follow the coast 

 line. 



t The great black -backed gull 

 (ZarMS marinus, Linn.) is also a circum- 

 polar bii'dj breeding in a more southern 

 latitude than its congeners, the glau- 

 cous gull and the Siberian herring- 



