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XLITI.—Notes on the Birds of the Lower Petchora. By 
Henry Seesoum, F.Z.S., and Joun A. Harvir Brown. 
[Continued from p. 311, and concluded. | 
As the snow gradually disappeared from the more exposed 
hill-sides behind Ust Zylma, and signs of coming summer 
began to gladden us after our long weary waiting, we looked 
forward each day with increasing expectancy for the vanguard 
of the great flights of migratory birds, which would, ere long, 
fill the pine forests, and the fields behind the town, and the 
birch-covered banks and islands of the river with life. With 
scarcely less eagerness, and with even greater bustle of pre- 
paration, did our good friends MM. Znaminsky and Sacharoft 
(keen sportsmen both) look forward to the arrival of the 
wildfowl ; and various small excursions were undertaken to 
certain well-known haunts in the vicinity, to ascertain whether 
or not they were beginning to put in an appearance. Of the 
wildfowl, Swans and Geese were the first to arrive; but 
Ducks were not observed in any numbers until some days 
later, viz. upon the eve of the breaking-up of the ice on the 
river Zylma, which took place on the 20th May. For some 
days previous to that date a remarkable change in the ap- 
pearance of the ice of the Petchora had become obvious; and 
the ice of the Zylma had become still more suggestive of ap- 
proaching dissolution. Looking away down the great river 
as we crossed it on the night of the 18th May, it seemed 
vaster and calmer in the stillness; looked like a great limit- 
less plain towards the north, with a few wooded oases (islands) 
on the horizon distinctly defined against the white light of 
the northern sky. Scarcely any snow remained on the sur- 
face; and large lakes of snow-water had formed here and there, 
those nearest the shore fed by considerable streams and run- 
lets from the high grounds behind Ust Zylma. Water-holes 
were not scarce in the ice of the Zylma, wells of water bub- 
bling up through holes and fissures, showing the rapid disso- 
lution going on underneath, and the increasing upward pres- 
sure of the water. The great cavity beneath the ice had 
become filled up; and the water hour after hour, even minute 

