146 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



desire to reduce the size of their families was general. One man 

 returned to Pulozero that afternoon; directly after leaving the hut 

 he shot a female Common Scoter on the lake near, and secured it by 

 means of a crazy old raft. This shot brought up a female Godwit, 

 which called at us a little and then flew away towards the north- 

 east. The next day she was chasing a Hooded Crow, after which she 

 again flew clear away. We saw no other Godwits during our visit. 

 The hours we spent searching for that bird's nest! We took the 

 ground in sections that we thought she came from when the gun was 

 fired, and went over every yard of it ; nor did we neglect any likely 

 spot for a mile round. A Common Teal had eight eggs under a 

 dwarf spruce ; they were slightly incubated. 



June gth. — To-day we divided, taking diiferent directions. Both 

 saw a pair of Spotted Redshanks and a male of the same species 

 feeding near the lake next to the house. Musters watched them more 

 than two hours without result. This bird was almost as scarce as the 

 Godwit here. The only nests seen were two Reeves' and a Whimbrel's. 



June 10th. — After the lovely weather we had experienced for 

 some time, to-day came as a most disagreeable change. It spotted 

 with rain when we turned out in the morning, continued as a heavy 

 " Scotch mist " all day, turned to sleet in the evening, and snowed all 

 night and all next day up to 6 p.m., by which time the snow lay 

 eight inches deep in all the sheltered places. We went down to ex- 

 plore some large marshes towards the south that Musters had seen 

 the day before, but found little on them beyond a few Whimbrel and 

 Snipe. Two Broad-billed Sandpipers Limicola jplatyrhyncha rose near 

 us, the first seen here. I fear they had cause to be thankful no gun 

 was out to-day. 



We had a good laugh at Juno ; she had had a heavy day yester- 

 day, and not liking the look of the weather, turned for home soon 

 after we started, with tender recollections of the Russian's down-bed 

 she had recently quitted. But, alas, she had not taken into account 

 the fact that we fastened the door when we left ! She met us at 



