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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 10-No. 8 



wing, followed immediately by the Biambling, 

 and then the smaller Warblers joined the chorus. 

 It is strange how short a time tliey seem to allow 

 themselves for rest. In the morning, the Kussian 

 Finn, having heard from liis daughter that some 

 eccentric individuals were camping out in the 

 woods by the lake, came and informed me that 

 he had seen the prints of seven bears in the snow 

 two days before, and wanted us to go after them ; 

 but the distance was great, and the chance small, 

 so we declined. 



June 31st. On the fells to-day Golden Plovers 

 and Wliimbrels were numerous. I took a nest 

 of the former with four fresh eggs, and shot one 

 of the latter as he perched on the topmost branch 

 of a Birch tree. When lunching we heard a 

 peculiar rhit-chil note in some scrub near us, and 

 on going to see what it was, a Common Snipe 

 (GrdliniKjo cdte^w) rose, the only example of this 

 species I observed in Finmark, or Finland, for 

 we were now on Russian territory. A pair of 

 Long-tailed Skuas seemed to be wandering over 

 the fells in search of a place to breed, and I 

 secured a splendid specimen as he came, like an 

 arrow, right at mc. The inside of its mouth was 

 pale pink, the irides hazel, the tarsus was a pale 

 blue, and the feet dusky black. We got our 

 third nest of the Bluethroat to-day, with si.v eggs. 



June 33nd. Two important observations were 

 made to-day : first, there is a slight tinge of green 

 in the Birch forests, which, up to now, have been 

 as bare and barren as Winter ; and, secondly, the 

 appearance of mosquitoes in force. From this 

 date life became hardly tolerable on account ol 

 this plague. I found this morning by the lake- 

 side a nest and sL^c eggs of the Reed Bunting, and 

 shortly afterwards I flushed a Plialaropc {Phiiln- 

 ropus hyperborcus) from her tiny nest in the grass, 

 close to the water's edge. The legs and feet of 

 this bird are greenish. A pair of Wood Sand- 

 pipers evidently had a nest here, but they com- 

 pletely deluded us. This bird has a liabit of go- 

 ing high up in tlie air and gyrating for hours in 

 wide circles, at times shooting up another fifty or 

 sixty feet with a delightful wild cry. 



Coming down the Pulraakelf, on our return to 

 Pulmak, we found two nests of Temminck's 

 Stints, one containing two eggs, the other three. 

 The latter was placed close to a Lap's log hut, 

 and immediately behind a dunghill adjoining the 

 house, a few paces from the edge of the Tana. 

 The old birds were very solicitous, sailing around 

 with their wings set over their backs, like a but- 

 terfly, often alighting on a tree, rail, or stone, or 

 sometimes on the ridge of the Lap hut adjoining, 

 uttering the while a continual pretty trilling note. 



I frequently observed this tiny Wader in the act 

 of nest making, scratching a hole with its little 

 feet, then quickly sitting down and turning its 

 little body round to form the required depression. 

 Then the bird jumps up, and looking at the em- 

 bryo nest, pushes a dead birch leaf with her 

 slender beak into the tiny hole. I measured the 

 diameter of one nest containing four eggs, and it 

 did not amount to 314 inches over all. The eggs 

 are placed small ends togethei', and, owing to the 

 depth of the nest, arc caused to stand nearly on 

 end, thus taking up very little space ; indeed, if 

 they lay on their sides, the small body of this 

 Wader could not cover them. Frequently, when 

 at the nest, the Stints would run round and 

 round, almost coming within arm's reach ; l)ut 

 their quickness of flight when surprised or fright- 

 ened is astonishing. They seemed to have a 

 special liking for the dry sandy banks of tlie Pul- 

 raakelf clo.se to its junction with the Tana. Here 

 the sloping sand was sparsely overgrown with 

 dwarf Willows, and amongst the roots of the 

 Willows a coarse grass was growing, strewn with 

 dead Birch leaves, and this the Stints seemed to 

 prefer to any other place, although I found them 

 breeding several hundred yards from water. 



June 13rd. A pair of Ring Plovers {yEgmUtis 

 hinHculn), by their excessive an.xiety and solici- 

 tude, betrayed their nest and four eggs within a 

 stone's throw of our dwelling. I had heard them 

 nearly all night long uttering their fine hollow 

 cry, as they flew up and down the river. I got 

 my last Pine Grosbeak's nest to-day, with two 

 eggs. A Great Grey Shrike's nest, built close to 

 the place where we had obtained a nest and seven 

 hard-set eggs on the 14th of June, now contained 

 six fine fresh eggs, evidently a second laying. 

 This nest was constructed almost entirely of 

 white "ryper"-feathers, and was very warm and 

 compact. It was placed in a Birch tree standing 

 alone in an open glade in the forest. The white 

 feathers of the Willow Grouse exactly resembled 

 in color the silvery bark of the Birch tree on 

 which it was built. We also obtained to-day a 

 Brambling's nest with seven eggs, a Bluethroat's 

 with seven eggs, and a Golden Plover's with four 

 eggs, and I shot a Grey-headed Wagtail in gor- 

 geous plumage. The heat was great to-day : the 

 Birch forests are turning green, and the mosqui- 

 toes are a living plague. 



June 34th. On our way to some distant fells 

 to look for Dotterel, we found a Ring Plover's 

 nest with two eggs and two Mealy Redpole's 

 nests, the first with five eggs, the second with 

 newly hatched young. The latter have a very 

 extended period of incubation, and probably have 



