166 Mr. A. C. Chapman's Birds' -Nesting 



Though I procured several, I could not detect any sexual 

 difference in the cream-colouring on the throat. 



While sheltering underneath a sand-bank from a pitiless 

 snowstorm, a Raven came past us, his throat distended with 

 food. Then a Rough-legged Buzzard with very light-coloured 

 plumage alighted on a rock near at hand and sat quietly 

 pluming himself. Presently an Osprey, with buoyant flight, 

 loomed through the snow-flakes, and checking his speed, 

 hovered for an instant ; then, with headlong swoop, he dashed 

 into the waters of the fiord, reappearing with a fish dangling 

 from his talons. After shaking himself, he flew past us, 

 and, on being fired at, dropped the fish; dissatisfied, he 

 swooped at it w hen falling, but did not succeed in overtaking 

 it. The fish proved to be a sole, 9^ inches long and 6 inches 

 Avide, with but one claw-mark in the body, and lived for 

 many hours afterwards. While trying to ascend the side of a 

 fjeld v/e distinctly made out several Geese feeding on some 

 shallow^ water, and approaching nearer, I could easily see they 

 were one or other of the two White-fronted species. Whilst 

 watching them a male Merganser swam quite near to nse, and 

 having caught a small fish, was chased and bullied by a 

 Herring-Grull till he was compelled to take flight. This 

 seemed to disturb the Geese, for they ceased feeding, and 

 with outstretched necks peered around suspiciously. When 

 I fired at them a pair of Redshanks rose close to me, and 

 walking home that night I secured one of a pair of Ring- 

 Plovers by the river-side. 



June 10th. Heavy snowstorms greeted us to-day. I saw 

 the first Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail {Motacilla cinereo- 

 capilla) this morning, which had seemingly just arrived here. 

 In the birch-forests, though deep in snow, we found four 

 nests of the Mealy Redpole, all in course of construction ; 

 the old birds were absurdly tame. The nests were very 

 pretty, lined with the Avhite woolly material of the willow- 

 scrub. The monotonous, though lively carol of the Redwing, 

 which we never hear in England, w^as very noticeable this 

 morning ; and to-day I found tlic first nest, with five fresh 

 eggs, placed about three feet from the ground in an angle 



