276 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



is pretty common, and which, they say, breeds 

 later than the common Garrulus infaustus. It 

 can be no other than the common jay. 



The Siberian jay (Garrulus infaustus, Nob. ; 

 "gnofsak/'Lap. ; "lafskrika," Sw.) "We come now 

 to a peculiarly northern bird, and one which is as 

 familiar to the Laplander as the miner and mock- 

 ing-bird are to the wanderer in the Australian 

 bush, for go where you will in the Lap forests 

 this cheerful, bold bird is sure to be your com- 

 panion now hopping on the ground before you, 

 now floating from one tree to another, or, perched 

 on the lower branch of a fir, it will sit and utter 

 its melancholy "mew" till another of its com- 

 rades is attracted to the spot, when it instantly 

 gives chase, and a battle royal appears always 

 to take place. In some of its habits the lafskrika 

 resembles its congener, the common jay, but it is 

 not half so noisy, and a much more companionable 

 sort of a bird, although it never comes so near 

 the houses. It is one of the boldest birds that I 

 know, and I never liked to shoot one, for there 

 was something of a cheery welcome to the stranger 

 in the free, unsuspecting habits of this bird. It 

 is, nevertheless, a very savage bird of prey ; and 

 I once actually saw a lafskrika give chase to an 

 old willow grouse a bird ten times its own 

 weight. It never could have been for the purpose 



