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especially if they are surrounded by thick scrub; here the Laps 
hunt them with dogs in the moulting season, and bring home the 
whole family, including the young which are as yet unable to fly, 
to the houses in the valley, where they soon become tame, and in 
the autumn have to lay down their lives like other domestic fowls. 
Here and there we may also meet with a pair or two of 
Whoopers (Cygnus musicus), which build their gigantic nest, 
resembling an enormous ant-hill, and compounded of earth, twigs 
and moss, upon the small islands in the rivers or larger lakes, far 
from human habitations. Of other birds of the Duck family may 
be mentioned the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis), which is 
frequent in the small lakes in the interior of Finmarken: whilst 
the duck incubates her dark olive-green eggs, which are buried 
deep in a wreath of her brownish-black down, the drake in his 
variegated dress with the long swallow-tail, remains close by, 
and keeps a sharp look out on the trout-fry. The Goldeneye 
(Clangula glaucion) forms in several places a source of revenue for 
the Laplanders, who hang up for them large nest-boxes in the 
trees by the river banks, and in these the duck lays her eggs, 
which. with the down are later on taken away. Naturally it lays 
its eggs in a hollow tree, a remarkable nesting-place for a duck ; 
but the way in which the newly-hatched young are slipped down 
to the ground by the parents in order to reach the water, is as yet 
scarcely explained, since this transport takes place by preference 
without witnesses. 
If we wander about for some time on the plateaux themselves, 
where large tracts are covered with stones, lichens, and an 
extremely sparse vegetable growth, mainly consisting of Diapensia, 
Saxifrages, some graminaceous plants, and species of Carex, we 
shall soon find out how poor, considering all things, animal life is 
here. Hour after hour may elapse, during which we meet with 
scarcely a single bird. And yet certain species have their real 
home even in this desolate region. Thus here nests the Dotterel 
(Eudvomias morimellus), and it is a cheering sight to find one of the 
parents, as a rule the male, leading about his small, velvety, 
down-covered young, pied gray and black, among the lichens and 
the rough grass knolls. With us this species is completely alpine 
in its habits, and seldom nests below the highest tree line. 
