482 PERISORETJS INFAUSTUS. 



believes itself unobserved. If the ground be open, the nest may 

 thus be found. At its nest the bird is generally quite silent, but 

 while one is climbing up [the tree] it will cry a little. When 

 suddenly startled from its nest, it flies straight off. It may be 

 nearly caught on [the nest], but when it has young it will scarcely 

 leave the tree, and scolds roundly at an invader. The best way to 

 find the nest is to quarter the ground regularly, and the skidor marks 

 enable this to be done with great accuracy. The search must be 

 made generally in the night, when the snow bears, and of course in 

 such places as the bird has been ascertained to frequent. They 

 believe it changes its ground from year to year or is not constant 

 to the same place. They consider the best time for its eggs to 

 be found is the last week in April ; but in some nests there are 

 young hatched a few days after Valpurin (the fiist of May), and in 

 others a week after. But still they found a fresh nest towards the 

 end of the first, or beginning of the second, week in May, and as the 

 bird did not know it had been discovered, it afterwards laid three 

 eggs, which were taken in due time. Just before St. Eric's day 

 (18 May) they found eight nests with young. Martin Piety 

 [being present] suggests that the great extent of burnt ground 

 about Rowa may explain the facility of finding the nests, while the 

 bird is abundant there. Besides the edge of marshes {Myr), the 

 lads say that the nest may be found in dells, generally in spruce, but 

 also in Scotch firs. '' When the bird gets far from its nest it cries, 

 and so also, if one tries to catch it on the nest, it puts its head on one 

 side and cries. While one is at its nest it will come to some little 

 distance and cry, generally with its mate. With young [in the nest] 

 it is much the same." Johan wonders where it gets the feathers 

 to make its nest when the ground is covered with snow, and suggests 

 that it prepares its nest in the autumn. He has seen Titmice 

 collecting feathers in winter. If the nest is touched before there 

 are eggs, the bird will generally desert it. Many of these eggs of 

 Johan's were spoilt by being kept so long before blowing. 



This season Ludwig and Anton tried hard with ray direction and 

 assistance to find the eggs on Muoniovaara. We put meat in the 

 woods, and watched early and late. Plenty of birds came, but we 

 could not make out their nests. At last, early in April, Ludwig 

 found one without eggs. I also examined it. Later in the season 

 the tree was cut down, so I have not secured the nest. It was some 

 twenty feet up in a Scotch fir. In May Ludwig found a nest near 



