FALCO GYRFALCO. 93 



was a last year's egg. It had been probably found in a nest exposed 

 to the weather. 



§ 203. Four.— West Finmark, 19 April, 185G. " L. M. K." 



Taken by Ludwig himself. The nest was in a cliff facing south- 

 east, about one hundred feet high, overhanging a lake or enlargement 

 of a small river ; so that if he had fallen, he would have been smashed 

 on the ice, which was right beneath the nest. It was a very difficult 

 place, so that a Lapp, whom he took with him, went away and durst 

 not help him. He fastened a rope to a large stone, saw that it would 

 reach the ice, and then let himself down. The stones were very loose. 

 He put the four eggs into his cap, and then slipped down the rope, 

 burning his hands considerably. The nest was in a corner, or little 

 rift of the rock, and made of sticks, mostly bare, he thought, — no 

 large mass, and without a deep hollow for the eggs. The bird was 

 there at first, and flew about once or twice, but went away long before 

 he let himself down to the eggs. The nest might have been three 

 fathoms over the river. 



§ 204. i^o^/r.— West Finmark, 28 April, 1857. "With both 

 birds. L. M. K." 



From the same locality as the preceding. Taken by Ludwig, in 

 company with another man. The former wrote as follows : — " I shot 

 one of the birds, and then we laid snares for the other, which was the 

 cock, and very wild. We went to a rock further off, and there I met 

 two boys, who had been and found another nest. They had caught one 

 of the old birds, and tried for a whole day to get the other, but it did not 

 come back any more [§ 208] . My nest was built mostly of old bare 

 birch twigs, and then upon these were some finer birch twigs with 

 bark on, but old and dried up. These were mixed with others, rotten * 

 and crumbling, some Grouse feathers and bilberry leaves. The nest 

 was about three ells from the bottom, and the hollow was four inches 

 deep and half an ell across. I shot the hen, took the eggs away, and 

 laid instead a Buzzard's egg, smeared with Reindeer blood. When 

 we came in the evening the cock was hanging on the rock, very 

 fierce. His eyes were blue in the middle, and a greyish-yellow ring 

 round them. His feet were reddish-yellow, and his beak dark blue 

 but yelloAvish red at the root. The hen had the same kind of eyes, 

 but with the feet and round the beak more purely yellow.^' 



The birds are now before me, unskinned. 



