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



liouse had turned green, and I was assured it would be two 

 feet high in ten days' time, so rapid is the growth of plants 

 and trees in the short Arctic summer. We took leave of 

 Pulmak and our kind landlord to-day, and as we turned the 

 bend in the river, we could not help being struck with the 

 wondrous change that we had witnessed during our short 

 stay. Our journey down the river was rapid, and, reaching 

 Gulholmen about 10 p.m., we proceeded to Yagge, the station 

 at the head of the Tana Fiord, where the steamerwas to pick us 

 up. As we crossed the fiord a White-tailed Eagle slowly 

 flapped across in front of us, and we w'cre rather astonished 

 to see several hundred Mergansers in a flock at this time 

 of the year. The " gaggling '' of Geese on the flats at the 

 mouth of the Tana gave us hopes of finding their eggs on the 

 next day. We then visited the ground where I had seen the 

 Red-throated Pipits [Anthus cervinus) on June 9th; their shrill 

 pipe again arrested our attention, and after a long search we 

 succeeded in finding a nest, with six slightly incubated eggs. 

 It was placed under a birch bush, on a moss-hag, surrounded 

 by water, and consisted of very stiff" stalks of grass externally, 

 and finer white grass for a lining, but the whole was of a 

 distinctly rougher texture and construction than is the nest 

 of its congener, the Meadow-Pipit. I was very careful in 

 the identification of these eggs ; and after finding the nest, we 

 watched the female, though very sly and retiring, go on to it, 

 when I procured her. Their habits now were more retiring 

 than formerly, and they rarely showed themselves, seeming 

 to prefer creeping along among the roots of the birch-scrub, 

 whence, when unmolested, they uttered a pleasing little song, 

 at times not unlike that of a Canary. Their eggs have suf- 

 fused blotches on them, and more resemble those of the 

 Blackcap than those of the Meadow-Pipit. Presently we 

 flushed a Temminck's Stint from her nest and four eggs, 

 placed far away from water; and from about the last tree 

 in Europe came the loud cackle of a Siberian Jay, which 

 proved to be a fledgling of the year. 



On the bare fell-tops we found Snow-Buntings and a pair 

 of Shore-Larks ; from the oviduct of one of the latter I took 



