THE TUNDRA AND ITS ANIMAL LIFE. 79 



unregulated, unrestrained, yet sonorous and tuneful, resonant and 

 ringing northern melody, comparable to the roar of the surge or to 

 the thunder of a waterfall as it rushes to the deep. Wherever a lake 

 rich in fish is to be found, with a secret place in the reeds thick 

 enough to conceal a floating nest, we find these children of the 

 tundra and the sea, these soberly -joyous fishers in the calm fresh 

 waters and fearless divers in the northern sea. Thence they have 

 come to the tundra to brood, and back thither they will lead their 

 young as soon as these are able, like themselves, to master the waves. 

 Over the whole extent of the tundra they visit its waters, but 

 they prefer to the broad inland lakes the little ponds on the hills 

 along the coast, whence they can daily plunge, with their wildly jubi- 

 lant sea song, into the heaving, bountiful ocean, which is their home. 

 From the sea come other two birds very characteristic of the 

 tundra. The eye follows every movement of the robber-gulls with 

 real delight, of the phalarope with actual rapture. Both breed in 

 the tundra: the one on open mossy moors, the other on the banks 

 of the most hidden ponds and pools among the sallows. If 

 other gulls be the " ravens of the sea " the skuas may well be called 

 the "sea-falcons". With full justice do they bear the names of 

 robber and parasitic gulls, for they are excellent birds of prey 

 when there is no opportunity for parasitism, and they become 

 parasites when their own hunting has been unsuccessful. Falcon- 

 like they fly in summer through the tundra, in winter along the 

 coast regions of the North Sea; they hover over land or sea to find 

 their prey, then swoop down skilfully and gracefully and seize 

 without fail the victim they have sighted. But even these capable 

 hunters do not scruple, under some circumstances, to become bold 

 beggars. W T oe to the gull or other sea-bird which seizes its prey 

 within sight of a skua! With arrow -like swiftness he follows 

 the fortunate possessor uttering barking cries, dances, as if play- 

 fully, round him on all sides, cunningly prevents any attempt at 

 flight, resists all defence, and untiringly and ceaselessly teases him 

 till he gives up his prize, even though it has to be regurgitated 

 from his crop. The life and habits of the Arctic skua, its skill and 

 agility, its courage and impudence, untiring watchfulness and irre- 



