i6o BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



he returned and settled on a low shed close to the house. I need 

 scarcely say the young ones continued to answer his cries from my 

 pocket the whole way. I have never met with a similar case, although 

 I have repeatedly carried home young which made themselves heard 

 distinctly, Young in down should never be killed when just found ; 

 they keep much better if carried home alive and then plunged into a 

 jar of methylated spirit — the quickest and easiest death possible. 



June 2W1. — We spent eight hours to-day on the first large marsh 

 to the south, excursions to which have been repeatedly described. The 

 only eggs taken there were a very finely marked clutch of Snipe ; the 

 nest had been found on our last visit with one ^gg. This bird sat 

 until Musters was within a foot of it, and then only rose when he 

 stood still, thinking he must have reached the spot : an example of 

 how easily sitting birds may be passed. They rarely rise if you walk 

 straight on, but there is much more chance of putting them up if you 

 take a zigzag course and stop occasionally to look round. We shot 

 three Broad-billed Sandpipers here ; all were afterwards found to be 

 males, although the second was thought at the time to be a female, as 

 it did not sing and kept on the ground. This species was almost the 

 only one among the Waders of which we noticed more than Mr. 

 Witherby did in 1899. He found a pair at Raz-Navolok (where we 

 did not meet with it), and two birds near Pulozero. One bird I was 

 much surprised not to see in this country, viz., the Dunlin; there 

 were large areas well adapted for its breeding-ground. Mr. Witherby 

 did not find it, and Mr. Goebel only mentions it as obtained near the 

 coast. I saw Dunlins at Lutni, nearly seven degrees to the east of 

 Pulozero, and at several places on the northern coast ; and in all other 

 expeditions I have found it breeding near the sea. On looking up 

 this subject in Dresser's " Birds of Europe " and the 4th edition of 

 " Yarrell " — the sheet-anchors of the working ornithologist respecting 

 British birds — I noticed a statement in the former respecting the 

 Dunlin with which I cannot agree. Mr. Dresser says (p. 24, vol. viii.) : 

 " In Iceland it is stated to be not so numerous as the Purple Sand- 



