234 Messrs. Pearson and Bidwell — Birds' -nesting 



-I- Turnstone [Strepsilas interpres). In good numbers on 

 some of the islands in the Porsanger. 



Had any historian of British birds described the nesting- 

 habits of this species^ we shoukl probably have found a good 

 many eggs^ but the very meagre information given rather 

 hindered than helped us. Directly we found a bird we 

 noticed that, if high ground was near^ it immediately flew to 

 it, uttering its alarm note, and presently it was joined by the 

 female; both birds would perch on boulders of rock. We 

 spent hours in trying to watch them back to their nest, but 

 they would not move from their stations whilst we were in 

 the neighbourhood. We also spent many hours searching 

 under stones near the places where we saw the females, but 

 without success. The last evening but one before we left the 

 Porsanger, whilst walking by the shore, we found a nest 

 placed in the centre of a patch of dwarf sallow not 5 paces 

 from high water-mark. A second nest was found in a 

 similar position, and a third under a flat stone just 12 paces 

 above high water-mark. 



-\- ^^j)-i^Y.CKET) Vh ALAROTE {Pkalaropushyperboreus). Nume- 

 rous on one of the Lofodens and in the Porsanger. They 

 often nest quite on the edge of small tarns or peat-holes, in 

 grass about 6 in. high; a few were in marsh ground covered 

 with grass of same height; the nests were neatly made of 

 fine grass, and rather deep in proportion to their width. In 

 most instances where we saw this species there were three 

 birds — two males and one female. Twice we saw parties of 

 three birds each on the sea, feeding just behind the breakers ; 

 repeatedly we noticed three birds together on the wing ; and 

 nearly every time we came upon them in the small lakes of 

 the tundra the party consisted of two males and one female. 

 Can this species he polyandrous? 



1 Common Snipe [Gallinago ccelestis). Observed in the 

 marsh at the back of Bodo. We found a nest of four eggs 

 in the Lofodens on the 12th June. 



.-\ Dunlin [IVinga alpina). Scattered over the low ground 

 of the Lofodens and the islands of the Porsanger. They 



