48 DAN MEINERTZHAGEN'S DIARY. 



In walking through these forests one comes 

 across large ant heaps, inhabited by large ants. 

 I opened one to-day and found within a 

 large supply of resin in small lumps about the 

 size of peas, from the fir trees. 



The contents of the gizzards of four Siberian 

 Jays which I have examined, contain the 

 remains of the bleaberry (vaccinium myrtillus) 

 and nothing else. This seems to be the food of 

 many birds here, the Grosbeak and Willow 

 Grouse for instance. The mauve round the 

 bill of the Grosbeak is no doubt merely the 

 stain from the juice of these berries. We came 

 across five Skylarks this evening. 



May jtb. A boy brought in four Sparrows' 

 eggs this evening ; I don't suppose there are 

 Sparrows' eggs from the Arctic Circle in many 

 collections. 



We had pike for breakfast, and Pintail soup 

 and Rypa for dinner to-day. The last two or 

 three days we have had nothing but Golden 

 Eye soup. I also got hold of a fork to-day, and 

 was able to eat fairly decently. 



The crop and gizzard of the Rypa I skinned 

 this morning was full of bleaberries. 



I shot to-day another cock Rypa in half moult, 

 with a few white feathers still on the neck, 

 also a cock Reed Bunting. There are plenty of 



