BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 89 



change. The birds on Medveji island had now begun to lay. Among 

 them were three pairs of Richardson's Skuas, which formed a curious 

 example of colour, one pair being both dark birds ; another, both 

 white breasted ; and the third, one light and one dark. Of course 

 this variation of colour is a very old fact ; but it was remarkable that 

 the only three pairs on the island should exhibit all three combina- 

 tions. The Black Guillemots were laying all round the island in 

 hundreds, many of them having two eggs ; and hundreds, almost 

 thousands, of these birds were on the sea. A pair of Turn- 

 stones showed anxiety on the east side of the island, and I at 

 once gave them undivided attention, but it was two hours before I 

 found the nest, and then by good luck. It was placed under a large 

 overhanging shelf of peat, in such a position that the bird could slip 

 on and off in two different directions according to that from which 

 danger was threatened. The young were formed in the four in- 

 cubated eggs. 



June 20th. — Fog in the morning prevented an early start, but by 

 mid-day it had cleared enough for the captain to make out his 

 channel between the islands. As on the i oth, it became thick again 

 directly we reached the open sea, and remained so most of the day ; 

 to-day the sea was very quiet. We sighted Cape Kanin at 1 1 p.m., 

 and then steamed down the coast in search of a suitable place for 

 landing. 



June 2 1st. — Knowing there was no harbour on the whole of this 

 coast where even a little vessel like the Expres could obtain a safe 

 anchorage, and that the weather might at any time curtail our stay, 



1 decided to select a spot for first venture midway between the high 

 land at the cape and the low tundra, chiefly marshes, which occupy 

 the whole district about the Chizha river (Chischa river, Rae). We 

 landed at 9.30 a.m. at the mouth of a river about forty- two miles 

 south of Cape Kanin, and found a good place for camping on the top 

 of the bluff, close to a small Greek chapel. Local time here is 



2 h. 56 m. fast of Greenwich. 



