Ramble in Lapland. 183 



an egg ready for laying. These birds are said by Sommer- 

 felt, the Vadso naturalist, to breed twice ; and this would 

 seem to corroborate his statement. They must have a con- 

 siderable vertical breeding-range, for though breeding at 

 Pulmak at the lowest possible level, they seemed here to vie 

 with the Snow-Bunting in the altitude of their haunts. We 

 revisited the Osprey's breeding-place, and were surprised to 

 find a new nest, from which the bird flew at our approach, 

 but it was empty. I believe this nest had been built by the 

 male bird alone, for though we waited some time, we never 

 saw more than this single Osprey. We observed to-day a 

 large flock of Geese, some hundreds together, and at our 

 approach they rose wild and departed, just as they had done 

 on June 9th. Could these birds be going to breed ? We 

 were much puzzled by these flocks of Mergansers and G-eese 

 at this season of the year. The mosquitoes were beginning 

 to affect us seriously now : the hissing column followed us 

 alike on mountain-top and lowland bog; escape was impos- 

 sible. In a short walk on the fells in the evening of July 1st 

 I shot a female Ptarmigan {Lagopus mutns) ; her ovary con- 

 tained fifteen undeveloped eggs. A pair of Bramblings were 

 evidently nesting on this fell-side, though there was no plant- 

 growth exceeding two feet in height. Next day, on a bent- 

 grass island in the fiord, we found two nests of Temminck^s 

 Stints, each containing four eggs, and a Mealy Redpole's 

 nest had one fresh egg. On the 3rd the Vadso steamer was 

 due at 8 p.m. ; but as the boat did not arrive till exactly twelve 

 hours afterwards, in strict accordance with Norwegian prac- 

 tice, we passed the time in watching the seals and small 

 flocks of old male Goldeneyes in their mature plumage, the 

 white cheek-spot being very conspicuous. On the 4th at 

 8.30 A.M., the steamer '^ Orion ^ arrived; we rounded the 

 dreary-looking cliffs of the North Cape about midday (July 

 5th), and reached Hammerfest at night. On the evenino- of 

 July 6th we reached Tromso, and I spent the night watching 

 the l)irds on the west side of the island. Redshanks, Oyster- 

 catchers, and Ring-Plovers were simply swarming, and I 

 caught young in down of each. Great flocks of Eiders 



