44 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



BEKNIIJE GOOSE. 



on the highest mountains of the Dovref jeld, in Scandinavia, where it enlivens 

 the fugitive summer with its short but agreeable notes, sounding doubly sweet 

 from the treeless wastes in which they are heard. It invariably builds its 



nest, which it lines' with feathers and down, 

 in the fissures of mountain rocks or under 

 large stones, and the entrance is generally 

 so narrow as merely to allow the parent 

 birds to pass. The remarkably dense win- 

 ter plumage of the snow-bunting especially 

 qualifies it for a northern residence, and 

 when in captivity it will rather bear the 

 severest cold than even a moderate degree 

 of warmth. In its breeding-places it lives 

 almost exclusively on insects, particularly 

 gnats : during the winter it feeds on all 

 sorts of seeds, and then famine frequently compels it to wander to a less rig- 

 orous climate. 



The Lapland bunting ( Centrophanes lapponicus), whose white and black 

 plumage is agreeably diversified with red, is likewise an inhabitant of the 

 higher latitudes, where it is frequently seen in the barren grounds and tundras. 

 Both these birds are distinguished by the very long claw of their hind toe, a 

 structure which enables them to run about with ease upon the snow. 



Among the raptorial birds of the Arctic regions, the sea-eagle (Haliontus 

 albicilla) holds a conspicuous rank. At his approach the gull and the auk 

 conceal themselves in the fissures of the rocks, but are frequently dragged 

 forth by their relentless enemy. The divers are, according to Wahlengren, 

 more imperilled from his attacks than those sea-birds which do not plunge, for 

 the latter rise into the air as soon as their piercing eye espies the universally 

 dreaded tyrant, and thus escape ; while the former, blindly trusting to the ele- 

 ment iii which they are capable of finding a temporary refuge, allow him to 



approach, and then suddenly diving, fancy 

 themselves in safety, while the eagle is only 

 waiting for the moment of their re-appeai'- 

 ance to repeat his attack. Twice or thrice 

 they may possibly escape his claws by a rapid 

 plunge, but when for the fourth time they 

 dive out of the water, and remain but one 

 instant above the surface, that instant seals 

 their doom. The sea-eagle is equally for- 

 midable to the denizens of the ocean, but 

 sometimes too great a confidence in his 

 strength leads to his destruction, for Kitt- 

 litz was informed by the inhabitants of Kam- 

 schatka that, pouncing upon a dolphin, he is 

 not seldom dragged down into the water by the diving cetacean in whose skin 

 his talons remain fixed. 



THE SEA-EAGLE. 



