9p FALCO GYRFALCO. 



before, when some kind of Hawk jflew angrily round him. There 

 had been Hawks^ nests there for many years. The old spot was 

 covered with good grass. It was a long time before we saw a bird — 

 and then only one, without any cries of alarm. At last the hen came 

 up, with food in her claws, and dashed screaming into a cliff at which 

 I had looked in vain for a nest. A short time before, a man had 

 seen a bird fly out of a low detached cliff; and here was the nest, 

 covered with dung, at a short distance from the ground, in a kind of 

 recess. I could climb so as to touch, but not so as to see more than the 

 heads of two downy young, which were continually chirping. Hoping 

 for a nest-egg, I made various attempts to get a peep ; and at last, 

 from above, I was able to see three young ones, perhaps a fortnight 

 old, or nearly so, and an egg. I trebled a string I had in my 

 pocket, and the man let it down for my support. I tied it on, and 

 so was able to reach into the very dirty nest and carry off the egg, 

 which I afterwards found to have a full-sized chick in it, probably 

 dead before I took it, but still not putrid. 



[The locality of tliis nest was shown by Mr. Wolley to Mr. Simpson and 

 myself in 1855, as we were descending the river.] 



§ 195. Four. — Nyimakka, Enontekis Lappmark, 18 May, 1855. 



Taken by Petari, who was with me the preceding year, from the 

 very same nest from which I then took a single egg. There were 

 large young inside. 



§ 196. Four.—We^i Finmark, 24 April, 1855. 



Just blown by me. They were taken about ten o'clock last 

 night by Lassi, in company with another man, who climbed up to the 

 nest on a perpendicular cliff, by the help of a rope let down from above. 

 The nest, they say, was very old, and had been repaired or used for 

 many years. It was on a little tributary of a stream, in the valley 

 of which I took the nest last year [§ 193]. Very near the nest was a 

 Fox's spoor, and they say the birds had evidently attacked it ; for it 

 had hopped about in the snow, and stuck its back in a bush. I 

 have just come from another nest [§ 198] with Lassi; and he says 

 the bird was exactly the same in appearance, voice, &c. The eggs, 

 even at this early time of year, are several days sat upon. 



§ 197. Four.—^Q^i Finmark, 24 April, 1856. " L. M. K." 

 Taken by Ludwig and Lassi from the same nest out of which the 



