1 90 



SIBERIA IN EUROPE. 



CHAP. XVI. 



cold, with occasional attempts at rain; yet we saw many 

 birds. The red-throated pipit was by far the commonest. 

 My companion shot a meadow-pipit from a tree, and caught 

 another sitting on its nest. We saw several golden plover, 

 a flock of seven or eight Buffon's skuas, a pair of dotterel,* 

 one or two shore-larks, besides securing the nest of a bean- 

 goose containing two eggs. On the grassy top of a mound, 

 halfway down the mud cliffs overlooking the great river, and 

 within sight of the Arctic Ocean, I came upon the eyrie of a 

 peregrine falcon. It contained four eggs, one of which was 

 much lighter in colour than the others. This mound had 

 probably been used for some years as a nesting-place by the 

 falcons, since the grass was much greener upon it than upon 

 the surrounding places. A little way off there rose another 

 mound, just similar to it, and this was apparently the falcons' 

 diniug-table, for scattered all about it were feathers of 

 grouse, of long-tailed duck, and of divers small birds. 



While I remained near the nest, the two falcons hovered 

 around, littering sharp cries ; when I approached nearer still, 

 they redoubled their screams, hovered over me, closed their 

 wings, and descended perpendicularly till within a few yards 

 of my head. Their movements were so rapid that I wasted 



* The dotterel (Eudromias morinellus, 

 Linn.) is one of tliose birds which are 

 not found east of the Himalayas and 

 the watershed between the Yenesay and 

 the Lena. In the British Islands it is 

 principally known as a spring and 

 autumn migrant, a few only remaining 

 to breed on the Cumberland and Scotch 



mountains. Its great breeding-grounds 

 are on the grassy hills on the tundras, 

 beyond the limit of forest growth. In 

 the rest of Europe, South-Western 

 Siberia, and Turkestan it passes through 

 on migration, wintering in Persia and 

 Africa north of the equator. 



