ASTUR PALUMBAKIUS. 75 



tree, which reached to the lower branches when raised against them. 

 I found it to be of prodigious thickness. As I stood on the branches 

 on which its lower part rested, the level of the top was some inches 

 above my head. It was quite like the celebrated Jackdaw^s nest at 

 Eton*, built up to get to a fresh point of support, which in this case 

 was afforded by a large fork. An old nest, or part of this one, had 

 fallen to the ground some time before. At the bottom its diameter 

 was very considerable, and it rose rather spirally upwards. At its 

 side a Squirrel's " drey" had formerly been built into it. The sticks of 

 which it was composed were, in the case of the largest, from half to 

 three-quarters of an inch in diameter, but most of them much smaller. 

 There was a moderate-sized hollow, with a few fresh sprigs of Scotch 

 fir in it, and half-a-dozen small strips of the cuticle of birch-trees. 

 The bird only showed itself once whilst we were at the tree, and then 

 it was after I had descended. It was at a respectable distance, and 

 chattered a good deal. The eggs, perfectly fresh, were probably not 

 yet complete in number. It was a snowy, windy day, but warm. 

 The old snow still deep on the river ; but banks exposed to the sun 

 were in some places already bare. 



§ 118. 7%r^^.— Miionio-vaara, West Bothnia, 19 May, 1855. 

 " With feather. L. M. K." 



0. W. tab. B. 



Found by Ludwig and Anton at the lower end of the hill near 

 Sisnakka-jarwi. Anton had seen the nest even last year or the year 

 before ; but it looked so small that he had taken it for a Crow's. 

 This spring, as they were going by, he just mentioned it to Ludwig; 

 and the latter thought they might as well get up the tree. As Anton 

 was halfway up, the bird shot out of the nest ; and Ludwig heard, 

 now or presently afterwards, the cackling noise wliich is so different 

 from the cry of the Buzzard. He is most positive as to the bird, 

 little as the eggs are, and smaU though the nest be. There were big 

 young in the eggs. 



P.S. — 17th August. I have been with Ludwdg and Mr. A. New- 

 ton to see the nest, evidently a Gos-Hawk's. We found a Gos- 

 Hawk's feather under it, which Ludwig remembered falling from 

 the bird ^. 



^ [The nest described and figau'ed by i\Ir. Jesse in his ' Scenes and Tales of a 

 Country Life,' (1844) pp. 67-59, and frontispiece. — Ed.] 



- [On this occasion I made a sketch of the nest, from which Mr. Jury has been 

 able to draw the plate above referred to. I only wish it had been in my power to 



