Ramble in Lapland. 181 



the habits of a Jackdaw or Magpie. Two which I secured 

 were fledglings^ not a week out of the nest, and were clothed 

 in a soft hairy dress, the rusty-red colour on the bastard 

 wing and tail being conspicuous in all their movements. I 

 never found a nest of this species, though it was evident 

 these birds had been hatched in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 We observed Mealy Redpoles, generally single birds, affecting 

 tiie highest fell-tops to-day, and busy feeding among the 

 boulders and reindeer-moss. In rowing up the Pulmakelf 

 on the 27th, we found several Temminck^s Stints^ nests with 

 broken eggs, caused by the rising of the river, and we also 

 got one with four fresh eggs. A male Goosander {Mergus 

 merganser) slipping slily away from an islet in a backwash 

 of the river, arrested our attention, as we had seen him there 

 several times before; and on landing on this island, over- 

 grown with birch-scrub, the female Goosander slipped away 

 from her nest, a circular hole in the sandy ground, 10 inches 

 in diameter and 6 inches deep, thickly lined with her dusky- 

 coloured down, containing ten cream-coloured eggs, quite 

 fresh. The birds never came near the nest while we were 

 there. When looking for the nest of a Greenshank which 

 we had disturbed, we found a Willow- Warbler's nest, lined 

 with the fine grey-mottled feathers from the back of a drake 

 Wigeon, with seven fresh eggs. 



June 28th. Many Wheatears have eggs now; their nests 

 are made of the roots of the ling and moss, and lined with 

 reindeer-hair. I observed a Garden- Warbler [Sylvia hortensis) 

 singing quite near me to-day, and obtained a Wigeon^s nest, 

 with six fresh eggs. They were laid under a willow-bush on 

 the banks of the Tana. House-Martins are busy nesting in 

 the crags, and Grey-headed Wagtails are very common. We 

 obtained two nests of the latter with fresh eggs to-day. A 

 Lap brought me a very interesting nest of the Great Grey 

 Shrike, constructed, as usual^ of the white feathers of the 

 Willow-Grouse; but this was overlaid with glossy Raven's 

 feathers, and the lining, on which the single e^g was de- 

 posited, consisted of i-eindeer-hair. 



June 29th. While we slept the grass round our little 



