BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 35 



where it had settled the night before, and there was the nest 1 8 

 inches from the mouth, containing three eggs more than half 

 incubated ; a few dead sorrel stalks had been taken in to form 

 the nest. 



As far as I have been able to judge, it is always the male Turn- 

 stone which takes the leading part in protecting both eggs and young, 

 as in many other species of birds. In fact, the old idea of the 

 mother's protecting love and devotion is a myth in far more cases 

 than people generally realise. It is more often the father who stays 

 to be shot in his efforts to draw off attention from, or otherwise 

 protect the young, while the female keeps carefully out of danger. In 

 the species where this occurs the male and female are very similar in 

 plumage, but it does not always follow that when they are alike 

 the male takes this duty. I have specially noticed this trait in the 

 north among Red-throated Divers, Phalaropes, Dotterel, Stints, and 

 Purple Sandpipers. 



Of fourteen nests of the Turnstone found during recent years, 

 three were in clumps of dwarf sallow growing 6 to 10 inches high, 

 three were under large flat stones, three upon open ground among 

 low grass or crowberry, two on the sides of large grass mounds or 

 tussocks, one in a Puffin hole, one under a shelf of peat, and one on the 

 open tundra. All except the last — on Kolguev — were on comparatively 

 small islands, and eleven were within fifty yards of high-tide. The 

 earliest date was June 13 th, and latest July 6th. 



It took some time to restore our impaired circulation after the 

 long watch of the Turnstone, and matters were not improved for the 

 one of us who walked into a bog up to his waist. The sun had 

 again made his circuit of the heavens without a cloud being seen ; 

 and when we turned in at 2 a.m. he was regaining his power, and 

 making the air pleasantly warm. On both nights it had been 

 decidedly cold from ten to nearly two, and although the light 

 appeared almost the same to the eye, my photographs showed it was 

 really much feebler than at mid-day. It soon became a curious 



