Te) APPENDIX: NO. IL. 
though he heard that many had been seen. The Lapps said also 
that some are always found distributed over the mountains and that 
they live on the Ptarmigans. 
“Of Strix funerea, which breeds very early, some laid their eggs 
in the spring of 1854, but he did not hear that any brought off their 
young, these having been found dead in the nests. ‘In 1855 he 
heard of only one nest, and he himself never once saw the bird. 
S. tengmalmi he never saw after the winter. It was never numerous. 
“The last time he saw Strix lapponica was in March 1854. One 
flew among the trees, just over the place where a Bear had made 
its lair. In 1855, however, he found its feathers, to all appearance 
fresh, in a nest of Garrulus infaustus. It was never numerous, but 
he had observed between ten and twenty in the course of the winter 
of 1853-4. Woodsmen assured him that they now and then see the 
Lapp Owl from one year to another. 
“ Strix liturata never shewed itself, and of S. bubo there seemed to 
be a little increase in its usual restricted number in Lapland. 
“ Faleo lagopus was not uncommon during the summer of 1854, but 
not more than one out of ten of the nests of the preceding year was 
tenanted, at least in the upper part of the Muonio district. 
“ But the most singular point in regard to these Birds-of- prey is 
their rapid increase in number. There can be no doubt that they 
collect from the neighbouring parts of the country into the Lemming- 
district, but whether they also, by a strange instinct, may come from 
distant parts is doubtful. That they breed with remarkable rapidity, 
where food is found in abundance, seems to be clear. Strix funerea 
laid in general seven or eight eggs. Of S. drachyotus he found 
three young and four unhatched eggs at the same time in the nest. 
According to the accounts of some Lapps, S. nyctea laid more than 
ten eggs, or according to others from five to ten; and Pastor Som- 
merfeldt in the Varanger Fjord had received similar reports from 
the Lapps of that district as to the great sg of eggs which 
S. nyctea lays. 
“Lastly, he stated that, it seems to be a compensating arrangement 
of Nature that the increase of these parasitic Owls should be in 
proportion to the increase of their food. ‘The first period after the 
disappearance of the Lemmings is one of pestilence and famine, but 
there is probably an improvement every year, until the country is 
again overrun, and the mountains send out their hosts. Meanwhile 
the scattered Birds-of-prey again forgather and rapidly multiply, 
when their food becomes as abundant and as easily procured as the 
food of herbivorous animals usually is.” 
