44 MR. R. COLLETT ON PHYLLOSCOPUS BOREALIS. ([Feb. 6, 
fall in with some of the eastern species that are found inhabiting the 
shores of the White Sea, but which hitherto have not been observed 
in Norway. 
My surmise proved correct; for sooner than I had anticipated, 
on one of the first of my excursions on the Porsanger Fjord, in 
the beginning of July, I met with Phylloscopus borealis in several 
localities on the banks of the rivers emptying into that fjord. 
On the 4th of July, when traversing (in company with my friend 
Mr. Landmark, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, at that time engaged 
in investigating the rivers of that region) one of the extensive and 
comparatively iuxuriant birch-forests on the slopes of one of those 
rivers, my attention was attracted by a song wholly unknown 
to me, and which I at once set down as that of one of the many 
species of eastern Sylviide. 
I had soon secured two individuals, both male birds; and having 
at hand Meves’s paper about his journey in Northern Russia, I im- 
mediately recognized them as belonging to the species described by 
Blasius, in ‘‘ Naumannia”’ for 1858, as Phylloscopus borealis ; and we 
saw and heard several others at the same place. 
A few days later, when strolling along the banks of one of the 
other rivers, I again observed this species in several places, in a 
tract about ten English miles in extent, and again shot two, also 
males, but was not able on my comparatively rapid progress through 
this part of the country to obtain a female. Hereabouts we heard, 
I should think, ten individuals, all of them singing, and consequently 
all males. On the 21st of July I first succeeded in shooting a fe- 
male, in the vicinity of the Pasvig-ely, South Varanger, about 200 
English miles east of the locality where I first met with the bird. | 
In the last-mentioned locality I observed several pairs; but the 
season being so far advanced, many of the males had probably ceased 
singing ; and the species doubtless occurred in more places than 
those where I observed it. My time on each occasion having been 
limited, I did not succeed in obtaining either the nests or eggs; the 
latter perhaps had been hatched previous to my arrival in Finmark, 
or, may be, were in process of incubation. 
Phylloscopus borealis consequently occurs throughout a consider- 
able portion of Finmark in most localities suitable to its habits ; 
probably therefore not further north than 70° 20’. Its distribution 
in Norway extends from the rivers on the confines of Russia to 
the birch-woods in the vicinity of the Porsanger fjord, or directly 
east of the North Cape; and the distance from that fjord to Alten 
on the west coast being not more than 20 English miles, it will very 
probably be found to inhabit the luxuriant birch-forests clothing the 
banks of the Alten Elv. 
Phylloscopus borealis affects exclusively the loftiest and most 
luxuriant birch-forests in the vicinity of rivers or lakes; and as it 
never occurred when the growth was sparse or stunted, I soon learned 
to tell from the appearance of the locality whether it was inhabited 
by the little songster. The soil in these birch-woods was always 
tolerably fertile, and the vegetation luxuriant, reaching, as a rule, up 
