the Birds of the Lower Petchora. 307 
. .. . . About 400 yards further on along the shore, and on 
the sloping dwarf-willow-covered meadow between the sharply 
defined tundra proper and the equally well-defined basin of 
the inland sea, and close to three stranded roots of large 
trees, I found another nest with four eggs, having watched the 
bird fly up, as before, from the ooze and alight, and having 
flushed her from, and watched her again to the nest. This 
nest was on the top of an isolated clump of sphagnum, 
through which a few stems of dwarf willow were growing*. 
In every respect the behaviour of the bird was the same as at 
the other nests, save that the presence of the dog seemed to 
cause her more alarm and make her shyer of approaching. 
She once shammed broken wing, and once flew away to the 
mud-flat. I lay within twenty yards of the nest, with my 
back resting against one of the roots, saw her approach, preen 
her feathers, advance, raise her wings and settle upon the 
nest. I then put her off and shot her. I afterwards con- 
tinued for a verst or two along the meadow, but saw no more 
Little Stints; and I then retraced my steps to the wreck. 
There I found Seebohm busy at work preparing the breast of 
a Bewick’s Swant+ for dinner, baking it in clay under a 
roaring fire of drift wood on the beach. It proved not un- 
palatable aided by stewed prunes, especially the prunes, as 
Paddy would say.” 
The Samoyede, Simeon, yesterday brought in another 
young bird in down, a good deal older than those procured 
before ; and this was the last we saw of young or eggs of the 
Little Stint, although we continued to see the old birds in 
small flocks both on the shores of this inland sea and of 
* Nests found upon the soft sphagnum had every appearance of having 
been formed by the pressing-down of the moss by the bird’s body; but 
those found upon barer ground could scarcely have been prepared in this 
way, and were probably dusted out by the bird’s feet and wings; or they 
may have been natural hollows chosen for the purpose. The Temminck’s 
Stint, we have reason to believe, sometimes avails itself of natural hollows 
in sandy localities. 
+ Which Swan Feodar and Simeon had brought from the big lake at 
the sources of the Eevka and Erisvanka rivers (vide article on Bewick’s 
Swan, infra). 














