the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 223 
down the river, and had secured some interesting species of 
birds ; but on the whole we felt disappointed in the delta, with 
its never-ending almost impenetrable willow-swamps and 
winding “ Kurias ” and little pools of water. Our experience 
of every island was almost the same—the same landscape, 
the same conditions, the same bird-life ; and we looked for- 
ward with eagerness to the real new land, the land of promise 
—Arkya Ya, the great land of the Samoyedes. 
During all the time we remained at Ust Zylma, while the 
migration was going on, we had seen nothing of the Grey 
Plover. We saw many Plovers passing over, or resting or 
feeding in little flocks in the ploughed or newly sown fields ; 
but all those which we shot or identified belonged to the com- 
mon species. We had therefore little expectation of after- 
wards meeting with it at its breeding-haunts*. 
But a glad surprise awaited us. On the 22nd June we at 
last had our wishes gratified. Wecrossed from Alexievka in 
our clumsy unmanageable boat, to the eastern or right bank 
of the river, and, climbing up the steep clay slope, stood upon 
the tundra. We had a large party on this our first day on 
the tundra—all our little force in fact,—Piottuch and our- 
selves, and our four men—Simeon the Samoyede, Little Feo- 
dor the half-breed, Gavriel and Big Feodor, Russians. Little 
did we guess as we stood on the top of the steep river-bank 
and gazed away inland over the wide expanse of moor and 
* Much valuable information concerning the migrations and arrivals of 
some of our rarer European Waders on the Volga and Kama rivers is con- 
tained in a Russian work, of which we give the complete title below, and 
which we had an opportunity afterwards of consulting with Piottuch’s 
assistance. In it the authors, speaking of the present species, inform us 
that it is seen on both migrations in May and September, in small flocks, 
in the neighbourhood of Kasan, but not every year. Thence, doubtless, 
these migratory flocks in spring descend the Petchora river as far as Ust 
Ussa (the mouth of the river Ussa), and spread over the Great Zémelskaya 
tundra northwards, without going round by Ust Zylma. The full title 
and reference to the above-mentioned work is as follows :—“ Materials 
for forming a Biography of the Birds of the Volga,” being Chapters IL., 
IIL., and IV. of Part 1, vol. i. of ‘Descriptive Catalogue of the High 
School of the Imperial University of Kasan.’ Edited by MM. Kova- 
levsky, Levakovsky, Golovinski, and Bogdanoff. Kasan: 1871. 



















