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Its common name of „Silde-maage" (heiTing-gull) was explained in 

 several parts of Finmark as „Siil-maage" (Ammodytes, the launce). 



Larus marinus, Lin. 

 Common everywhere along the coast, breeding singly here and 

 there on the shores of freshwater-lakes adjacent to the sea. In 

 winter-time most of these birds leave the Finmark coast. 



Pagojihila churnea, Lin. 



Young individuals of this species occur every winter off the 

 coast of Finmark down to Tromso, and are well known by the 

 name of „Hav-rype" (sea-ptarmigan). Individuals in full plumage 

 are rarely observed. 



South of the Polar Circle stray individuals only are met with, 

 the last example procured having been shot near Christiansund, 

 in 1872; it is now preserved in the Trondhjem Museum. 



Bissa tridactyla, Lin. 

 The most northern colonies in Finmark are found on the Stap- 

 pen „Fuglev8er", close to the North Cape, and on Svserholtklub- 

 ben. When I visited the former locality, June 26th 1872, the 

 nests contained eggs, slightly incubated however, and half-fledged 

 young. The nests, composed of clay and stalks of grass, are built 

 on the very walls of the perpendicular rocks, or on narrow ledges 

 sparsely covered with herbage ; the sides of the nests were quite 

 saturated with the droppings of the birds. Attached to the top- 

 ling crags, they project like the nests of swallows over the sker- 

 ries beneath; some however are located so low as to be frequently 

 wetted by the spray. The approach to this interesting breeding- 

 haunt was in a high degree unsavoury from the vast accumulation 

 of guano, and from the number of rotten eggs and half decomposed 

 bodies of young birds with which the rocks are thickly covered 

 at this season of the year. The cliffs adjacent, on which the birds 

 are thick as snowflakes in winter, while the air is darkened with 

 their masses, and rings with screams from innumerable throats, 

 presented an imposing sight. 



