244 FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



to produce a painful impression when it breaks on the 

 silence of Arctic stillness. 



' The lakes of Iceland and its streams/ says the author 

 of The Arctic World, * abound with these beautiful birds. 

 They are very numerous on the Myvatn or Great Lake, 

 where are also seen the wild duck, the scoter, the common 

 gossander, the red-breasted merganser, the scaup-duck, 

 and other anserines. They are found also upon the salt and 

 brackish waters along the coast. It is chiefly at the pair- 

 ing season, or at the approach of winter, that it assembles 

 in multitudes ; and as the winter advances it mounts 

 high in the air, and directs its course in search of milder 

 climes. It is in its flight that the Cygnus musicus, appar- 

 ently by the napping of the air with its wings, occasions 

 the violin-like music to which reference has been made. 



' The female builds her nest of withered leaves and 

 stalks of reeds and rushes in lonely and sequestered places. 

 She usually lays six or seven thick-shelled eggs, which are 

 hatched in about six weeks, when both parents assiduously 

 guard and feed the cygnets. 



' The wild swan is shot or caught for its feathers, which 

 are highly prized for ornamental purposes ; next to the 

 skin lies a coat of thick fine down of the purest white 

 swan down.' 



Flocks of wild swans, wild geese, and wild ducks, find 

 their way to the southern limit of the forest region of 

 Northern Russia and beyond it ; and there, in the month 

 of August, are seen large flights of snipes passing, it is 

 supposed, in migration from the district around Arch- 

 angel to the south. If the weather be fine, each flight 

 seems to rest only one night ; when it is otherwise they 

 remain for some days, frequenting marshy ground and 

 streamlets, and many fall by the guns of the peasants and 

 sportsmen. 



Of the Tetraonidae, or grouse tribe, which seem chiefly 

 to inhabit cold countries, there are numerous species, chief 

 amongst which, as being most abundant and most delicious, 



