142 TOTANUS FUSCUS. 
heather and such-like plants, growing thinly amongst short Reindeer- 
lichen. Slight depressions in the ground, placed near some little 
ancient logs, so nearly buried, however, as to afford no shelter—the 
bedding only a few dry leaves of Scotch fir. The bird sits some- 
times so close that one is tempted to try to catch it in the hand. 
Its white back is conspicuous as it crouches with its neck drawn in. 
It either gets up direct or runs a short way before it rises, and then 
it fies round with an occasional “ ¢jeuty,” or stands upon the top of 
a neighbouring tree, shewing the full length of its slender legs, 
neck, and bill. But it is not until it has young that all its powers 
of eloquence are fully brought into play. It then comes far to meet 
any intruder, floating over him with a clear cry that echoes through 
the forest or that is heard over a great extent of marsh, or it stands very 
near one, bowing its head and opening its beak quite wide in the energy 
of its gesticulation. The eggs, four in number, are of a rich green 
ground-colour when fresh, or sometimes of a bright brown. This 
year they were laid hereabouts at the end of May. The young are 
probably carried into marshy land as soon as they are hatched, for 
they are there whilst they are still very small. I am told that dry 
mounds rising out of swamps are sometimes chosen as breeding- 
places. The nests I have described were found quite by good lueck— 
stumbled upon in walking through the forest, where the bird is 
scattered usually at rather wide intervals. One may see two or three 
pairs in the course of a long day’s walk. It is so wary that I have 
never succeeded in watching it to its nest. 
[The foregoing, written by Mr. Wolley, at Muoniovara, on the 17th October, 
1854, for Mr. Hewitson’s use, was by that gentleman printed in his‘ Eggs of 
British Birds’ (ed. 3, ii. pp. 826-828), wherein he also figured (pl. lxxxviii.) 
three specimens of the egg of this species, the part of his work containing both 
text and plate appearing in February, 1855. Though in 1851 Dr. Thienemann 
figured two eggs as belonging to Totanus fuscus (Fortpflanzungsgeschichte der 
gesammte Vogel, Taf. Ixiv. 2 figs. a, 6), and in 1852 Dr. Kjzerbélling (Danmarks 
Fugle, p. 290) professedly described its eggs, which he said he had received from 
Norway, I must take leave to doubt whether any ornithologist had seen a 
genuine specimen before Mr. Wolley. Those figured by Dr. Thienemann are 
unlike any in the large series herein recounted, and the fact that no text was 
published leaves us in ignorance of their origin, while the egg described by 
Dr. Kjerbdlling is said to be “short and at the blunt end thicker than a 
(common) Redshank’s, which it otherwise resembles, except that the colour is 
more of a reddish-brown.” HH. Malm and Schrader in 1841 and 1842 
traversed part of Lapland, where they found this species abundant, and the 
latter announced (Journ. fiir Orn. 1853, p. 242) that it was said to breed near 
Enara; but they certainly never found a nest, and the former only mentions it 
