126 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[JUNB, 1902. 



soiuo time to explore a, marsh thoroughly. We shall never 

 forget one awful day, just before a heavy Ihunderstorm, 

 when we attempted to work a marsh, but found it quite 

 iuijiossiblc to go more than twenty yards without resting. 

 A veil is a great handicap in shooting, and we found it 

 oxoeedinglj' difficult to judge distance at all accurately. 

 As to trying to watch "birds in this country it was impos- 

 sible to do so for any length of time. Directly one 

 stopped, such a cloud of mosquitoes gathered round one's 

 head that after a short time the bird could not be seen 

 through the binoculars owing to the dense swarm of 

 mosquitoes which quickly gathered in front of the glass. 



The only times in which we were able to discard our 

 veils was after we had beaten the mosquitoes out of the 

 tent and tixed the curtain over the doorway, and when 

 after rowing hard for half an hour or so on a laiic we left 

 the mosquitoes behind. At one place, however, -we met a 

 tiny black fly in such myriads that it became a far worse 

 pest than the mosquitoes. This fly was so small that no 

 ordinary netting would keep it out, and it crept into our 

 hair and ears and bit so hard and unpleasantly that to 

 escape going mad we were forced to pack up our things 

 and run away from the place. But no one who has been 

 in the interior of Lapland in summer can adequately 

 describe the blood-sucking insects which possess that 

 country. 



As I have mentioned, the birds found on the marshes or 

 bogs were the most interesting. They were chiefly wading 

 birds, and many of them were well known to us as autumn 



A Late in Russian Lapland. 



and winter visitors to the shores and mud-flats of the 

 English coast. The most common of these were whim- 

 brels* and wood sandpipers,! while greenshanksj and 

 reeves, 1 1 although not so numerous, were to be found on 

 most of the marshes. All these birds appeared to have 

 young ones, and in different ways showed intense anxiety 

 for the safety of their broods. The whimbrels and green- 

 shanks wore always shy and cautious, keei^iiig at a respect- 

 ful distance and uttering loudly and incessantly their wild 

 clear notes. It is remarkable that all these wading birds, 

 when at their breeding stations habitually perch on the 

 trees. The whimbrels used to perch on the tops of the fir 



• Numenitis phceopus. f Totanus glareola. J Totanus canescens, 

 II Machetes pugnax. 



trees, and fluttering their wings, perhaps to help keep their 

 balance, would whistle defiantly at us. In the same way 

 all the wading birds we found perched on the trees when 

 disturlw'd. 



Every marsh, and indeed every little bit of marshy 

 ground, had a pair or two of wood sandpipers. Most fussy 

 and noisy little birds they were, and so bold and tame that 

 when once disturbed they were difficult to get rid of, and 

 would follow one about so closely, crying anxiously all the 

 while, that one's presence soon became known to every 

 other bird anywhere near. It was curious that although 

 reeves were as tame and almost as jtlentiful in some places 

 as wood sandpipers, we never saw a single ruff, as the male 

 bird of this species is called. The ruff is polygamous, and 

 it is well known that it keeps apart from its harem when 

 the young are hatched, and takes no share or responsiV)ility 

 in the troubles and anxieties connected with its offspring. 

 Had there been any ruffs in the country we explored, I 

 think it hardly likely that we should have missed them, so 

 we must conclude that they had entirely deserted their 

 families and had already gone south towards their winter 

 quarters. 



From Bella Guba we rowed up the Imandra to Raz- 

 navolok near the northern end of the lake, aud on some 

 marshes near there we made our best fiuds. Hitherto we 

 had found birds in this country by no means plentiful, and 

 we had been much disappointed by the dearth of bird-life 

 in the enormous pine forests as well as on the large lakes. 

 AVe were delighted, therefore, to find a great many in- 

 teresting birds breeding on these marshes. Two of these, 

 the bar-tailed godwit* and the dusky redshank,! especially 

 attracted our attention, because it had lieen the privilege 

 of but a very few ornithologists to see these birds in their 

 breeding haunts. On arriving at the largest marsh, which 

 was a five-mile trudge from our camp, we a.n-anged to 

 work it systematically. However, we had scarcely gone a 

 hundred yards before a strange bird rose from the ground. 

 We shot it and found with delight that it was a male 

 bar-tailed godwit in the beautiful summer ]dumage — a 

 dark black-brown back and a rich salmon pink breast. 

 A long search near the place from which the bird 

 had risen was unproductive — neither its nests nor the 

 eggs or young could be found. Then we began to search 

 the marsh rather excitedly, and some way off we put up 

 the female — not nearly so brilliant a bird, with a buff 

 rather than salmon-coloured breast. Still we could find 

 neither eggs nor youug, but at this we were not very 

 surprised, as these marshes or bogs are profusely over- 

 ^Tdwn with a multitude of creeping plants, such as dwarf 

 l)irch aud many kinds of berry-bearmg plants besides 

 thick moss and grass. That day we found many other 

 birds but saw no more godwits. Ou the next day, however, 

 we carried out our plan of a systematic search aud were 

 successful in finding two more pairs of godwits. The 

 male bird of one of these pairs was evidently in charge of 

 youug ones. He flew round us in a very excited way, and 

 although he did not hover about quite near us, like the 

 sandpipers and reeves, he often swooped over our heads 

 with a rush and then retired to a tree-top and quivered his 

 wings and called loudly. We kept as quiet as the flies 

 would allow, and after a time I saw four youug birds 

 running on the ground at some distance. I rushed madly 

 to them ; they separated, and 1 managed to keep only two 

 in view. These I caught, but the other two had hidden 

 themselves so cleverly and quickly that although we knew 

 just where they must be we could not discover them, and 

 of course nothing would make them budge now that 

 danger threatened. Young birds which run as soon as 



• Limosa lapponica. 



Totanus fuscus. 



