20 , 206 



large numbers in the stomach of this individual. These eggs are 

 found likewise in the stomachs of other species that devour the 

 larvae of insects infesting Ijirchwoods. 



Centropliancs lapponica, Lin. 



Abundalit both in East and West Finraark, more especially on 

 the low holms and islands in the Porsangerfjord and along its 

 shores. South of Finmark, it breeds down to the Polar Circle, and 

 has frequently been found on the main-land and the larger is- 

 lands (on Lofoten, for instance), though less abundantly. This 

 species, too, in common no doubt with the majority of the small 

 birds of Finmark, takes an easterly direction when migra.ting, and 

 hence it is hardly ever seen in the lowlands of the south. The few 

 individuals observed here in a long series of years belonged pro- 

 bably most of them to the colony on the Dovrefjeld. 



In the summer of 1872, 1 found it most abundant on Store Tams0, 

 in the Porsangerfjord, an island remarkable for the number of in- 

 teresting ornithological facts it supplies; here, in the month of July, 

 it occurred more numerously than any of the smaller birds, affec- 

 ting, a;s elsewhere, heather-grown spots. It evinced but little shy- • 

 ness, running boldly over the knolls of earth, then covered with 

 Empetnmi and blooming Biibus chamaemorus, and was thus ren- 

 dered more conspicuous by contrast with the bright colours. I 

 never heard their song after the young were hatched. 



The nests of this bird, like those of AntJms pratensis and cer- 

 vinus, are located beneath a knoll of earth, but can be easily di- 

 stinguished from those of the latter by the thick layer of feathers 

 with which they are lined. The principal materials employed are 

 the same in both, stalks of dry grass. 



The half-grown young, of which a description is given in Nyt 

 Mag. f. Naturv. Vol. 18, p. 178, have the feet pale and the bill 

 wholly brown, which is not the case with maturer individuals; the 

 culmen, too, is not straight, but slightly curved. In this young 

 stage, it is no easy matter, at the first glance, to distinguish them 

 from young of the same age of Enih. shoefiidtis, which have also 

 a brown curved bill and light feet. The young of the latter spe- 



