278 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. chap. xxr. 



Pinega fair. Our men brought back with them but one 

 bird. This was perhaps the most interesting of all to us ; 

 shot on the banks of a great lake in company with four 

 others — a Bewick's swan. 



On the morrow the storm of the preceding day continued, 

 and rain fell during the morning; so we spent the hours 

 inside our wreck, writing up our journals and examining 

 the phalaropes. We found that the bill of some of them, 

 though apparently not more slender, is much more flexible 

 than that of the birds we had hitherto obtained. The rust- 

 red on the neck of the latter is found on tlie crown of the 

 head of the former; it is also present on the tail; it is 

 more conspicuous on the back, and forms a broad edging to 

 the longer feathers of the bastard wing. The wings are of a 

 neutral tint, a soft bluish-grey, ^>hile those of our former birds 

 are distinctly brown. The legs and feet differ also in colour. 

 Those of the first-obtained birds are of a uniform dark lead 

 colour, faintly tinged with yellow on the margin of the 

 webs. In the birds last shot, the back of the legs and the 

 under surface of the feet are pale yellow ; the front of the 

 legs' and the upper surface of the feet are a grey flesh hue. 

 The colour of the sides of the head and of the breast is 

 notably darker in the former than it is in the latter. 



The idle morning seemed a long one. After dinner we 

 smoked a pipe, whiled away the time in chatting, and then 

 retired, as I thought, very early to bed, I woke after some 

 hours and got up, for I had had sleep enough, shouldered my 

 gun, and went out, leaving all the others still deep in their 

 slumbers. It was very windy, and ever and anon came 



