REVIEW. 345 



The birds which were ' at home ' then numbered some 150 individuals. 

 As far as I could judge, breeding had not yet commenced." 



Herr Manniche has some interesting observations regarding 

 the moult of the Ptarmigan and other birds, and concerning 

 the dark and pale forms of the Fulmar, from which it would 

 appear that the dark-breasted birds greatly predominated 

 from about lat. 75" northwards. 



Regarding the breeding-habits of the Knot, the author has 

 much of great interest to tell us, although he was not fortunate 

 enough actually to find a nest : — 



" More than the other waders," he writes, " the Knots keep strictly 

 in couples immediately after their arrival. . . The pairing-notes of 

 the male filled the air everywhere a few hours after their arrival. 



" The male suddenly gets uj) from the snow-clad gi-ound, and pro- 

 ducing the most beautiful flute-like notes, following an oblique line 

 with rapid wing-strokes, mounts to an enormous height, often so high 

 that he cannot be followed with the naked eye. Uj) here in the clear 

 frosty air he flies around in large circles on quivering wings, and his 

 melodious, far-sounding notes are heard far and wide over the country, 

 bringing joy to other birds of his own kin. The song sounds now more 

 distant, now nearer when three or four males are singing at the same 

 time. Now and then the bird slides slowly downwards on stiff wings 

 with the tail-feathers spread ; then again he makes himself invisible 

 in the higher regions of the air, mounting on wings quivering even 

 faster than before. . . 



" Gradually, as in increasing excitement he executes the convulsive 

 vibrations of his wings, his song changes to single, deeper notes — 

 following qviickly after each other — at last to die out while the bird 

 at the same time drops to the earth on stiff wings strongly bent upward. 

 This fine pairing-song may be heard for more than a month everywhere 

 at the breeding-places, and it wonderfully enlivens this generally so 

 desolate and silent nature. The song will, at certain stages, remind of 

 the fluting call-note of the Curlew (Numenius arquatus), but it varies 

 so much with the temper of the bird, that it can hardly be expressed 

 or compared with anything else. . . 



" Already, June 10th, I found an almost fully-developed egg in a shot 

 female. From the middle of June I often met with females, the be- 

 haviour of which made me suppose with certainty, that they had 

 commenced to bieed. In such birds I fovmd well-marked breeding 

 spots, and but quite small eggs in the ovaries. All the breeding birds 

 behaved in nearly the same way. When I carefully walked over a 

 larger table-land a bird would suddenly appear just before my feet, 

 rushing silently and as secretly as possible away between stones and 

 following furrows in the earth. When I — having vainly searched 

 for the nest — ra]iidly followed the bird, this would, with a short call, 

 fly high u]) in the air, disappear for some moments and again appear 

 a little farther forward on the jjlain, where it continued its silent running, 

 as it seemed, without the slightest inclination to go to the nest. If at 

 last I secured sucli a bird it always proved to be very thin and to have 

 breeding spots — certain signs that it had eggs or young ones. I have 

 from an ambush watched such birds for hours, but I never succeeded 

 in getting them to show me their nest. 



" The breeding localities were quite the same as those of Calidris 

 arenaria : dry, stony, sparsely covered table lands, with clay or sand- 



