Appendix II 193 



tent, when I saw, on the very spot where I proposed bathing, a large flock of geese. Cautiously retiring 

 behind the crest of the steep bank, I rushed back to the tent, and having snatched up my Winchester, 

 stealthily returned. The geese were still there, drinking and cropping the grass. As it was too near 

 to shoot (some 25 paces from the crest over which I was looking), I resolved to approach the geese 

 quietly and shoot the biggest on the wing. Great was my astonishment when the geese not only 

 did not rise on my appearing over the crest, but paid no attention to me whatever. I approached 

 closer and counted them. There were 18 birds of different ages, the young ones being three-quarters 

 the size of the adults, with traces of down ; the biggest were quite as large as full-grown bean-geese. 



Only when I walked on openly, and was but a fathom from the flock, did the young birds, after an 

 exchange of low cacklings, unwillingly move down-stream along the bank. Having followed them some 

 70 paces as far as the widening of the flooded land, I decided to drive them away from the river. 

 I succeeded in doing this, but, apparently alarmed by my importunity, the whole flock quickened its step 

 and set off for a small lake 100 paces from the river. Here I scattered the flock by shouting and 

 throwing earth at them, and eventually brought down the biggest bird. At the shot, part of the flock 

 made for the lake, and part for the river and higher tundra, the larger birds half flying. One of the 

 largest did not run at the report of the gun, but threw itself down on the ground, with outstretched neck. 

 By chance, instead of being in the grass, it was on dry moss, so that, however close it lay, it still 

 remained in full view. Notwithstanding, it allowed me to approach quite close, and while I walked 

 round it two or three times at a distance of only 2 or 3 feet, it lay motionless as if dead, although 

 watching me the whole time with its large dark eyes. 1 



At last I put my gun down on the moss, and threw myself on the goose, which, however, 

 dexterously extricated itself and started off at a sharp pace, arching its back and stretching forward 

 its head. At this moment my two companions — Yablya and Nikolai Ledkov (a young Samoyed from 

 Novaia Zemlia) — came up, and caught both this and another young bird. In both specimens the bill 

 was dark, but the narrow subterminal band was already faintly indicated by its paler colour. I was loth 

 to kill them, and so set them free on the river, where they dived and swam about for a long time in full 

 view of our tent. 



It must be added that we passed most of the 15th in the same place and saw no geese, although 

 we went round the neighbourhood shooting; but in the evening of the 15th and on the 16th we were 

 at the mouth of the Vaskina and on Promoinaya Bay, the tent and part of the sleighs remaining 

 as we left them. 



During the latter day three more old bean-geese flew past ; and I then learned from the Samoyeds 

 that although they knew the barnacle (Branta leucopsis, Bechst), they did not know definitely whether it 

 breeds, as, according to their statement, it is very rarely met with, but they were of opinion that 

 it does not nest. 



On August 18 we drove from the Vaskina to Krivoe Lake, thence to the Sovandei and 

 Anuru Hills, and on the evening of the 21st to our base of operations— the church at the mouth 

 of the Bugrina (Bugrino Stanovishche), without detecting any trace of geese. On the 23rd the 

 Samoyeds brought one old Anser albifrons, showing the rosy colouring of the bill already described, and 

 a pair of bean-geese, one of which had 20 and the other 25 teeth on each side of the upper mandible, 

 while the nails in both were oval and slightly arched ; the bill was mostly black with an annular 

 area of yellow. One was a young Melanonyx, which I added to the collection. 2 



Starting the same day (August 23) for Stanovoi Sharok, I saw a pair of bean-geese — 

 passing over the Bugrina. Farther on the road to the Sharok, and from Sharok to the mouth of the 

 Peschanka, we saw no geese, and not till the 26th did I see a pair in the distance (I think bean-geese), 

 near the southern end of Peschanoe Lake. Nevertheless, the deep lands near the sea, between the rivers 

 Barkho and Peschanka, and the Peschanoe Lake are, like Promoinaya Bay (and the Goose Lakes), the 

 headquarters for the wholesale catch of moulting geese — only earlier in the year, in the summer. 



1 This specimen was undoubtedly a young yellow-bill, as the nail occupies only one-fourth of the total length of the upper mandible. 



2 M. segetum, with 24 teeth on each side of the upper mandible. 



2 С 



