112 A TRIP TO HABARIKI 



than I had heard them doing during the breeding season 

 in Norway. 



The redwing was decidedly commoner than the field- 

 fare, and its rich wild notes constantly resounded in all 

 parts of the forest. Its usually plaintive whistle was 

 only occasionally heard, the note which it more frequently 

 uttered resembled rather that of the song-thrush, but 

 was very short. We shot one, to make sure that it was 

 a bird of no other species. Its low warble often came 

 following the notes just mentioned ; but sometimes it was 

 given without the preliminary note, and once we heard 

 it utter a loose alarm-cry like that of the fieldfare. It is 

 evidently an earlier breeder than the latter bird. We 

 got four or five of its nests, containing four eggs each ; 

 one had five eggs. We found one nest in a spruce-fir 

 built nine feet from the ground, but in no instance did 

 we find a nest nearer than eighteen inches to the ground, 

 nor is it likely that there would be any built lower in 

 a country comparatively flooded. All the redwings were 

 in pairs ; we saw no signs whatever of their habits being 

 gregarious. 



The blue-throated warbler was very common and tame, 

 allowing us to approach near as it sang perched on a low 

 bush or fed on the ground. It was in full voice, and 

 the variety of its notes formed a perfect medley of bird- 

 music. It frequented marshy ground, whether amongst 

 alders and willows, or in the forests of pines or other 

 trees. We saw several handsome male redstarts, and 

 came upon a pair or two of wheatears in the open sandy 

 pinewood near the village. 



In the same locality we saw a few pairs of stonechats. 

 Willow-warblers were very abundant. At Habariki, for 

 the second time, I heard this bird utter a note different 

 from any I had heard in England. It is like the t-r-r-r 



