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SQUATAKOLA HELVETICA. 



APPENDIX A. 



When the article on this species was issued, in an early part of the present work, all the infor- 

 mation that could be obtained respecting its nidification consisted of the observations made by 

 Von Middendorff during his journey to Northern Siberia; and it was not then supposed that the 

 Grey Plover bred anywhere within the limits of the Western Palsearctic Region. Amongst the 

 interesting discoveries, however, made last spring (1875) by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohm, 

 who brought so many rarities back from the Petchora river, in Northern Russia in Europe, not 

 the least important is that of the nidification of the present species, which they found breeding 

 in tolerable numbers ; and I am indebted to the latter of these gentlemen for the following 

 interesting notes : — " When Harvie-Brown and I planned our expedition to the Petchora we 

 thought it was within the range of possibility that we might return with eggs of the Grey 

 Plover. As the migratory birds began to arrive at Ust Zylma we kept a sharp look-out for the 

 Grey Plover as one of the specialities of our trip. On the 17th May, the second day of summer, 

 the Golden Plover arrived. We carefully examined every flock of these birds that passed us, 

 and never lost an opportunity of shooting a bird ; but as all the migratory birds arrived one after 

 another without any signs of the Grey Plover, we gradually gave up our hope of obtaining their 

 eggs. Nor did our journey down the river do much to reassure us. At Pustazursk (or, as the 

 Russians on the Petchora call it, Gorodok, or the town) we found the Golden Plover, but no signs 

 of the Grey Plover. One fact, however, encouraged us. In the delta of the Petchora we found 

 several species of birds in considerable numbers, and unquestionably migratory birds, which we 

 had not seen in Ust Zylma, and which could not possibly have passed through in such numbers 

 without our having seen something of them. It was perfectly obvious that Ust Zylma was 

 somewhat out of the line of migration, and that the majority of birds intending to breed on the 

 tundra would only follow the valley of the Petchora as far as the Ussa, and would then strike 

 direct across the comparatively fiat country to their breeding-places. We ascertained afterwards, 

 by reference to a work published by the Museum at Kasan, that small flocks of Grey Plovers are 

 seen in most years in May and September near that town. The Grey Plovers wintering on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean would probably leave by way of the Black Sea, cross by the Sea of 

 Azov to the Volga near Sarepta, follow the Volga to Kasan, and thence take the valley of the 

 Kama through Perm to Tcherdin, close to the source of the Petchora. 



"We arrived at Alexievka on the evening of the 19th June, and on the 22nd crossed the 

 river to the land of promise, the Aarka Ya of the Samoyedes, the Bolshai Semlia of the Russians, 

 the mysterious tundra (a sort of ornithological Cathay) of our little party. We mustered seven 

 altogether — our two selves, our interpreter Piottuch, and our crew of four, two Russians, a 

 Samoyede, and a halfbreed. It was a bright warm day ; the wind had dropped ; and it was too 

 early in the season for the mosquitoes to be troublesome. The tundra forms the east bank of 

 the Petchora; and we had to climb up a steep cliff (perhaps 60 feet high), a crumbling slope of 



