H. SEEBOHM—NESTS AND EGGS OE BIRDS. 
259 
day. The whole surface of the country, like an English garden 
run wild, is brilliant with flowers—anemones, pinks, gentians, and 
saxifrages, in full bloom. Arctic fruits abound everywhere. Straw¬ 
berries, crowberries, bilberries, and various other fruits ripen 
rapidly during the hot summer, and almost as soon as they are 
ripe are covered up in a thick bed of snow. The snow freezes and 
preserves them during the long winter months, and directly it 
melts there is an abundant store of last year’s fruit ready for the 
multitudes of birds to eat directly they arrive. Birds which feed 
upon insects are provided for in an equally liberal manner. Mos¬ 
quitoes by millions and ten of millions cover the open tundra. It 
is impossible to form any conception of the millions that spread 
over the country. The Arctic blue-throat, the willow-warbler, the 
Siberian chiff-chaff, and other delicate birds, all feed upon mos¬ 
quitoes, and here find a congenial home. Of all the many birds 
which breed upon the Siberian tundra, swans, ducks, and geese are 
probably the most conspicuous; while the grey plover, the little 
stint, and one or two other birds whose breeding-places were, until 
recently, absolutely unknown, are certainly the most interesting. 
I first visited Siberia in 1875 with my friend Mr. Harvie Brown, 
and we had the good fortune to find the eggs both of the grey 
plover and the little stint, neither of which were then known to be 
in any European collection, with the single exception of the Museum 
at St. Petersburgh. Twelve or fourteen distinct species of ducks 
and geese breed upon the tundra, and it was very interesting to see 
how carefully the nests of many of them were covered over by the 
parent-birds with down plucked from off their own breasts, forming 
a sort of lining which was pulled over the eggs whenever they 
were left, and affording not only concealment during absence, but 
also acting as a protection against cold. 
And now I will ask you to leave the far north and go with me 
to visit the colonies of the birds which are to be found in the south 
of Europe. Before doing so I will briefly allude to a class of birds 
which rely for the safety of their eggs upon the protective colour 
of the sitting hen. Of this class you cannot have a better example 
than the common pheasant; the cock is an extremely brilliant bird, 
but the hen is a plain brown creature, and, when sitting, is very 
inconspicuous, and consequently comparatively safe. 
The summer before last I went down the Danube for the purpose 
of visiting the breeding-places of the various waders, and con¬ 
spicuous among these is the common heron. The heron is an early 
breeder, but on the Danube no eggs are to be found until May or 
June. The Danube is a river very similar to the Nile. When the 
snow on the Carpathians and the Alps begins to melt, it rises 
rapidly, and twenty miles of the country on its northern side is laid 
under water. The herons on the Danube never begin to nest until 
there is about six feet of water in the forests; they have learned 
by experience, or natural selection may have eliminated the birds 
that do not know, that it is only safe for them to make their nests 
where neither rats, weasels, nor boys can molest or rob them. 
