188 GRUIDtE. 



22ucl of May, iu a s^Dot only two feet from the nest of the 

 preceding year. It consisted of not more than a handful or 

 so of whitish sedge grass, about twenty inches across, and 

 two or three inches only above the level of the water of the 

 submerged parts of the marsh, close to the edge of which it 

 was situated. There was a kind of creeping moss about it, 

 and one or two very low-lying shoots of sallow. 



" It was placed in an open part of the middle of the 

 south-east wing of the marsh. I have a memorandum that 

 there was not then a leaf unrolled, the only visible signs of 

 summer being a kind of Carex coming into flower on the 

 hummocks ; and yet the nights were quite as light as the 

 day. I kept watch at the distance of nearly half a mile ; 

 but unfortunately the smoke of my fire blew towards the 

 nest. I saw a Crane go sailing down, and afterwards the 

 pair walking together, when they indulged iu a minuet or 

 some more active dance, skipping into the air as the Demoi- 

 selles sometimes do in the Zoological Gardens. Once or so 

 I saw the beak of one pointed perpendicularly to the sky ; 

 and a couple of seconds afterwards the loud trumpet struck 

 my ear. It was two or three o'clock in the morning before 

 a bird came on to the nest ; and even then she was soon off, 

 but again came back, sitting always with her head up. She 

 left it very wild when at last we advanced from our bivouac. 

 In this watch I saw and heard many interesting birds, 

 amongst them a Hen-Harrier {Circus cyancus). Also a pair 

 of Goshawks {Astnr 'palumharius) dashed into a tree close 

 over my head, the Crane still visible in the distance. These 

 eggs were rather smaller than the pair from Iso uoma ; two 

 other nests which I have since obtained in Lapland have 

 eggs as big as those which are said to come from Germany, 

 and vary as they do. I had the pleasure in August 1857 of 

 showing Mr. Frederick Godman and his brother Percy a nest 

 near Muonio-vaara, from which eggs were taken the same 

 year, and a young one fledged, from the same marsh at least, 

 if not from the same nest as in 1856. Their wading to this 

 nest, known to be empty, amidst swarms of greedy gnats, 

 was. a satisfactory proof of zeal." 



