342 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



the river. I had just time to see that they had yehow 

 heads, and sat in a bunched-iip position, which made 

 them look very large. As I rapidly threw up my gun and 

 fired, I imagined at the moment that they were Haw- 

 finches, and it was only on picking up one I killed, that I 

 discovered what it was. They arrived quite silently, and, 

 still more remarkable, uttered no sound either as they 

 sat on the alder-bushes, or as they flew off after my shot 

 was fired. The one I secured has a bright yellow head 

 with very black half-collar on the back of the neck, and 

 by dissection is a male. My impression is that all the 

 others also had yellow heads, but I had not time to scan 

 them carefully. 



Fieldfares. — These are beginning to lay, and we had 

 two nests brought in with just one egg each. We heard 

 the low song uttered by the bird on the wing, and which 

 is, I believe, supposed only to be uttered previous to the 

 breeding season [see Norwegian Journal for 1871] . 



Bediving. — Very common, and we got several nests all 

 with four eggs, save one which had five. This would 

 make it appear that the Kedwing is an earlier breeder 

 than the Fieldfare, though both arrived at Ust Zylma at 

 the same time. We found one nest in a spruce nine feet 

 from the ground. The eggs appear to be those of the 

 Redwing, but as we did not see tlie bird, they cannot be 

 considered as authenticated. In a considerable series 

 of the eggs of the two species from Norway, I have eggs 

 of both species, well identified, which I think it would 

 be almost impossible to distinguish the one from the 

 other. 



Bluethroat. — This is a very abundant species ; indeed, 

 almost, if not quite, as plentiful as the Brambling. It is 

 found everywhere through the forests alike plentiful in 

 the thickets of alder and willow, in the large forest, and 

 in the opens covered with scrub, wherever there is marshy 



