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especially if they are surrounded by thick scrub ; here the Laps 

 hunt them with dogs in the moulting season, and bring home the 

 whole family, including the young which are as yet unable to fly, 

 to the houses in the valley, where they soon become tame, and in 

 the autumn have to lay down their lives like other domestic fowls. 



Here and there we may also meet with a pair or two of 

 Whoopers (Cygmis musicus), which build their gigantic nest, 

 resembling an enormous ant-hill, and compounded of earth, twigs 

 and moss, upon the small islands in the rivers or larger lakes, far 

 from human habitations. Of other birds of the Duck family may 

 be mentioned the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis), which is 

 frequent in the small lakes in the interior of Finmarken : whilst 

 the duck incubates her dark olive-green eggs, which are buried 

 deep in a wreath of her brownish-black down, the drake in his 

 variegated dress with the long swallow-tail, remains close by, 

 and keeps a sharp look out on the trout-fry. The Goldeneye 

 (Clangula glaucion) forms in several places a source of revenue for 

 the Laplanders, who hang up for them large nest-boxes in the 

 trees by the river banks, and in these the duck lays her eggs, 

 which with the down are later on taken away. Naturally it lays 

 its eggs in a hollow tree, a remarkable nesting-place for a duck ; 

 but the way in which the newly-hatched young are slipped down 

 to the ground by the parents in order to reach the water, is as yet 

 scarcely explained, since this transport takes place by preference 

 without witnesses. 



If we wander about for some time on the plateaux themselves, 

 where large tracts are covered with stones, lichens, and an 

 extremely sparse vegetable growth, mainly consisting of Diapensia, 

 Saxifrages, some graminaceous plants, and species of Carex, we 

 shall soon find out how poor, considering all things, animal life is 

 here. Hour after hour may elapse, during which we meet with 

 scarcely a single bird. And yet certain species have their real 

 home even in this desolate region. Thus here nests the Dotterel 

 (Eudvomias morinellus), and it is a cheering sight to find one of the 

 parents, as a rule the male, leading about his small, velvety, 

 down-covered young, pied gray and black, among the lichens and 

 the rough grass knolls. With us this species is completely alpine 

 in its habits, and seldom nests below the highest tree line. 



