Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/50

38 in full retreat from the battle ground that I discovered some of the enemy still hovering on the flanks and only shook these off by vigorous riding.

As we proceeded farther along the bank of the Sungari, we came upon rank growths of willows, which shielded the road from view on the river-side. At one point a long sand spit projected far into the stream. Through the tops of the bushes I saw a sight which stirred and enchanted me. An immense flock of geese blackened the shoal, and, though it was impossible for me to make an accurate estimate, they must have numbered thousands. Evidently they had passed the night hereabouts and were now feeding in the crevices of the sand and in the small pools of water, which had been left behind by the receding current, or on a small fry in the shallows along the spit. Many varieties of geese were here. Among them I identified the common grey goose (Anser cinereus), the corn goose (Anser segetum), the casark (Casarca rubra), common in Mongolia and Thibet, the coral lama bird (Casarca rutila), the Indian or bar-headed goose (Anser indicus), the bernicle (Bernicla torquata) and the diving goose (Mergus merganser). Near by on the water rode flocks of wild duck, among them the cross or mallard duck (Anas boscas), the red-necked duck (Fuligula ferina), the teal (Nettion crecca), the duck with white brows (Oedemia fusca), very rare in these latitudes. A group of silver swans floated like great flocks of white foam farther out in the stream. They were of the two well-known varieties of the crying swan (Cygnus musicus) and the deaf swan (Cygnus olor).

As is also the case in southern and eastern Siberia, this Manchurian conglomerate of the wilds had a marked peculiarity. Not only the species commonly found in the