1877.] | MR. R. COLLETT ON PHYLLOSCOPUS BOREALIs. 45 
to the knees ; the most conspicuous plants were Geranium sylvaticum, 
Chamenerion angustifolium, Melampyrum, Myrtillus nigra, various 
species of Graminee, &c. 
In such localities several pairs were often found breeding, not far 
apart; and sometimes I could hear two, and even more males singing 
simultaneously. As a rule, however, they were somewhat scattered, 
It invariably shunned localities where the soil was wet and spongy, 
selecting, in the forests it affects, comparatively dry and elevated 
spots, which it inhabits in company with Phylloscopus trochilus, 
Cyanecula suecica, Turdus eliacus, Fringilla montifringilla, and 
Linota linaria, likewise Parus cinctus and P. borealis. 
The song of the male birds rendered them more easy of detection 
than the females, which were probably just then sitting, or feeding 
the nestlings. Notwithstanding the season was far advanced, they 
sang frequently and for a considerable time together, not only in the 
middle of the day, but late in the evening and early in the morning ; 
nay, on one occasion, I heard one Singing in the middle of a rainy 
night (this individual was one of those preserved.) 
The song in summer is consequently not confined to avy particular 
time of day. It consists of a but-one-syllable note, zee, zee, zee, zee, 
rapidly reiterated a dozen times in succession, the commencing strain 
bearing some resemblace to that of Sylvia curruca or Emberiza citri- 
nella; then succeed one or two disconnected hissing sounds, tseers, 
éseers, a trifle lower in tone than the main song, but still audible at 
a considerably greater distance than the corresponding tones of 
Phylloscopus collybita (after its two-syllable song), which can only 
be distinguished in its immediate proximity. 
The song is repeated several times, after which come intervals of 
greater or less duration when it is silent. The hissing sound was also 
uttered when the bird was frightened, and was the only note I heard 
from the female. The calling note (hveet) of Ph. collybita and Ph. 
trochilus was never uttered by Ph. borealis. Once only did I hear 
another and far lower song, which I at first mistook for that of Parus 
einetus, and which bore a striking resemblance to the usual note of 
that species, the closing syllable being somewhat drawn out. 
One I heard singing in this manner was shot and preserved; it 
was imitating, in all probability, the song of Parus cinctus, a habit 
characteristic of another of the singing birds of Finmark, Acrocephalus 
schenobenus. 
As late as the 22nd of July the males were in full song in the 
vicinity of the Pasvig-Elv, South Varanger. 
Though not, strictly speaking, shy, these birds exhibit, as a rule, 
greater wariness than Ph. trochilus, and if seared, would not always 
allow you to get within shot. They were remarkably brisk in their 
movements, scudding to and fro through the leafy tree-tops in pursuit 
of insects, and were rarely seen on the lower branches or in close 
proximity to the ground. They generally sing while fluttering from 
branch to branch, precisely as the other species of Phylloscopus do. 
The localities they inhabit being exclusively such as swarm with 
mosquitos, and the summer of 1876 having been unusually pro- 
