

the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 303 
two rubles if he found a nest with eggs. Almost immediately 
Piottuch and I ran forward, he being a little in advance, and 
in a trice we had three more young, a little older than the 
last. Within fifteen yards of these last young a bird rose, 
and again we ran forward together. ‘Hurrah!!’ shouted 
Piottuch, ‘Hurrah!! Monsieur, les ceufs!! les ceufs !!’—he 
was the first to see them—and the next instant we were sitting 
one on each side of the nest, the birds of both eggs and young 
flying closely round us or alighting within twenty paces. 
Seebohm came up; and we all sat round the nest admiring it ; 
Simeon had also come up; and he caught the fourth young of 
the second set. And the eggs? Miniature Dunlin’s, three 
richly marked, and the fourth light and more faintly marked, 
but also just like a variety of the Dunlin’s egg. And the 
nest? Rather untidy, rough and uneven round its edges, 
very shallow, and sparingly lined with a few small leaves, 
which may have been plucked by the bird as she sat on her 
nest. Round it were masses of yellow sphagnum, dark green 
leaves and empty calices of the arctic bramble, and a tuft of 
round-stemmed Carex (Carex rariflora). A little further off 
were some, now flowerless, plants of the aromatic dwarf rho- 
dodendron, bunches and patches of long white grass, and a 
few single stems of the cotton-grasses. Both birds were shot 
—the bird with the eggs and the parent of the four young. 
The turf, a foot square, holding the nest was cut out carefully 
with a knife, and the mass, including the plant of arctic 
bramble, the yellow Sphagnum, and the tuft of round-stemmed 
carex, placed carefully in a handkerchief, with a bit of cloth 
rolled up and put into the nest to preserve its shape as much 
as possible. The three old birds were ‘put in paper bags, 
and the bags carefully numbered 1, 2, and 3 (two young, 
four young, and four eggs). It is worthy of remark that the 
old birds did not hover in the air above the eggs or young, 
as Temminck’s Stint does, but only, as above described, flew 
in small circles round us, alighting fearlessly close to us, and 
never out of gun-shot.” | 
The following day, 23rd July, was a blank as regards Little 
Stint’s eggs, although we offered our men five rubles re- 
ward for the nest and eggs, and all went on the search. 

