August, 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



125 



I flusbed a brace of Wigeon off the small piece 

 of water near our house, where I had killed the 

 mature drake before; the unfortunate duck lost 

 her husband again, and I found he was half 

 moulted to Summer plumage. 



June 18th. We found our first nest of the 

 Blue-tliroated Warbler (Cyanccula siteciea) to-day, 

 with seven fresh eggs. It was placed on a dry 

 bank of moss, much concealed, and was con- 

 structed entirely of fine dry grass, with a thick 

 foundation of moss. The female, which was 

 very tame, had a white throat, with a little l)lue 

 at the edges and a touch of red and blue on the 

 breast. All the male Bluethroats which I saw 

 had the red spot on the throat. A Brambling's 

 ne.st contained seven fresh eggs to-day: and a 

 Raven which I shot was in full moult in all the 

 wing feathers, except the quills, which had been 

 renewed, and the feathers on the neck and head, 

 which were also new. 



Coming along the edge of the Tana I found a 

 nest and four eggs of the Shore Lark (Otocorys 

 alpentris). The nest was within ten yards of the 

 river side, placed in a hole scratched in the sandy 

 ground near the bank. It was close in to Pul- 

 mak, and I must have passed the place dozens of 

 times before, but even now I did not see the bird. 

 Two Laps, Trinus, and I were standing wonder- 

 ing where the owner of the nest could be, when 

 we suddenly caught sight of her, squatting on the 

 ground at our very feet, her head turned towards 

 us and her little black horns distinctly visible. 

 The nest was made exclusively of dry white 

 broad-bladed grasses. The eggs were of a yellow- 

 i.sh color, not unlike tho.se of our Yellow Wagtail. 

 It is strange that this bird should nest in such 

 very different localities, for I afterwards found 

 them, evidently breeding, on the bare fell-tops 

 overgrown with stunted lichens and mosses, and 

 strewn with boulders and patches of snow. A 

 Lap brought me in to-night five eggs of what he 

 called the "Hanga," i. e. Long-tailed Duck 

 (Harelda glacialis). The nest was placed on the 

 river bank just opposite Pulmak, and as there 

 was no down, I concluded she could not have 

 laid her fidl complement off eggs. Reed Bunt- 

 ings seemed common by the side of some fell 

 lakes which we visited to-day. Although we 

 now had fine Sunmier weather, there was not a 

 sign of greenness in a single tree or plant as yet, 

 and many deep ridges of snow looked as if they 

 were never going to melt. A single Swallow ar- 

 rived at Pulmak in the evening. 



June 19lh. House Martins (CMidon urhica) 

 arrived and sought the eaves of our dwelling 

 for a breeding place. After breakfast I shot the 



female Wigeon as she rose from her nest close to 

 the house ; the one egg was laid on the dead 

 leaves under a Willow bush, with scarcely a sign 

 of a nest. This was the Duck whose two hus- 

 bands I had already secured, and now she fell 

 herself! She had a pretty brindled head, grey 

 and black, the wing and tail coverts mottled 

 white all over, the flanks were brown. 



June 20th. A little Lap boy brought me this 

 morning, in a tin tray, the nest, cut out of the 

 ground, containing three eggs, of the Dotterel 

 (Eudromiiis morinellus), the firs', indication I had 

 of this bird's presence near Pulmak. To-day 

 Trinus and I packed up our tent and hired two 

 Lap boys to "pole" us up the Pulmakelf as far as 

 Pulmak Vand, a lake some seven miles long and 

 two miles wide, about eight miles from Pulmak 

 and about forty miles north of the great Lake 

 Enare. We had intended pitching our tent near 

 a Russian Finn's hut at the south end of the lake, 

 but we were rather amazed to find, on emerging 

 from the high banks of the Pulmak rivci', that 

 the whole surface of the lake was still frozen, and 

 that the mountains on the Russian side were deep 

 in snow. We accordingly pitched our tent in the 

 Birch forest near the frozen lake, and when the 

 two Laps had roasted us some salmon steaks with 

 the aid of a birch fire, they returned to Pulmak, 

 and we were left alone in the solitudes of the 

 forest. Close to our home was the boundary line 

 between Norwegian Lapland and Russian Fin- 

 land ; this line is kept distinct through the Birch 

 forests by means of cutting down all the trees for 

 a width of several yards, and over the bare fells 

 by large cairns of s'ones set on the tops of con- 

 spicuous fell summits. 



When strolling along a pathway in the forest 

 in the afternoon, we met the Russian Finn's 

 daughter, who had just flushed a Willow Grouse 

 {Lagopus albiis) from its nest and eleven richly 

 colored eggs, laid on the dead Birch leaves at the 

 foot of an old stump. I bought these from her; 

 but she thought they were worth at least a krone 

 for eating. Coming back to our tent that night 1 

 disturbed a Blue-throated Warbler from her nest 

 under a Juniper bush, containing five fresh eggs. 

 As we lay in the tent we made notes of the noc- 

 turnal bird-songs. About 11 p. m. the woods re- 

 sounded with the hoarse cackle of the Willow 

 Grouse. I learnt that they were in the habit of 

 flying down to the forest streams to drink at this 

 hour, and certainly from 11 o'clock till midnight 

 they were very restless and noisy. For about 

 half an hour at midnight, though the sun shone 

 brilliantly in a yellow sky, all was hushed, and 

 the first bird to break the silence was the Red- 



