Breeding of the C?-ane in LajAand. 197 



of my fire blew towards the nest. I saw a Crane go sailing 

 down, and afterwards the pair walking together, when they 

 indulged in a minuet or some more active dance, skipping into 

 the air as the Demoiselles sometimes do in the Zoological 

 Gardens. Once or so I saw the beak of one pointed per- 

 pendicularly 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 inter- 

 esting birds, amongst them a Hen Harrier {Circus cyaneus). 

 Also a pair of Goshawks {Astur palumbarius) 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 noma ; 

 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 satis- 

 factory proof of zeal. 



The locality was in a perfectly open part of the rather small 

 marsh, which was scarcely half an English mile across ; so that 

 the bird on its nest must have been most conspicuous from 

 every side. It was on a little elevation, not more than one stride 

 across, and raised only a few inches above the water. The eggs 

 on the 5th of June were a good deal sat upon. The tinders did 

 not venture to leave them, both for this reason, and because a 

 large hawk was believed to be watching them. They assured me 

 that the birds did not cry, which agrees with my experience of 

 their behaviour when I was near the other two nests. 



I went the day after the eggs were taken to sec the place. 

 There was still ice enough down in the bog to prevent me sink- 

 ing beyond a certain moderate depth : not so when the Godmans 

 tried it. The nest, as usual, was of the kind of sedgy grass 



VOL. I. P 



