117 



(Eggs of Brit. Birds, 2nd ed. i. p. 210*, pi. liii*). Quoting Mr. Wolley, Mr. Hewitson says, 

 "As the days grew longer I eagerly listened to the beautiful clear music of the bird in more 

 than one locality ; and one snowy morning I saw a hen watching me so very unconcernedly from 

 a tree, that I climbed up to try to catch her in my hand. It was not until I nearly touched her 

 that she flew off, as though she thought I was carrying the joke too far, but in a way that con- 

 vinced me she had no nest. I had made arrangements for working another part of the country ; 

 but I left a trusty Lap in strict charge to visit a spot in Finland where I had ascertained that 

 in previous years the bird had bred. On my return to that neighbourhood at the end of summer 

 I watched day after day for the arrival of my faithful Lapp. The nights were already becoming 

 dark, when one evening I saw the well-known figure in a boat approaching our strand. I had 

 scarcely shouted welcome before his wallet was in my hand, and my English friends and myself 

 were in triumphal procession to the house. First made its appearance a grim wolfs head ; then 

 came forth some reindeer gadflies ; next there was extracted an unknown nest, then a skinned 

 Pine-Grosbeak; and at last were carefully unwrapped from a little case the wished-for eggs, 

 and there they lay in all their fresh-discovered beauty before us. At midsummer a nest was 

 found with four fully fledged young about a hundred yards from the spot where the former nest 

 had been. It is now in the British Museum. Externally it is made of remarkably open work 

 of twigs and roots, generally in very long pieces. In the centre of the platform there is an inner 

 bedding of barkless fibrous roots, with a little of the hair-like lichen which grows so abundantly 

 on the trees in Lapland forests." 



I am indebted to Professor Newton for the loan of a copy of the late Mr. Wolley's notes 

 on the breeding of this species, from which I extract the following description of the first nest 

 obtained by him : — " The nest was found by Piety, the trustworthy Lapp, in company with Mikel 

 Sadio. It was in the evening of the Second Heluntai (i. e. 27th May) that they went to Kotta 

 Mello, a little above Yli-Kyro, on the same side of the river. The place was a little kind of 

 dell where there were groups of small spruces. Piety first saw the bird fly up from the ground 

 with some sticks or nest-lining in its mouth. It remained quite quiet and still ; and they were 

 some time before they found the nest, apparently completed, but still without eggs, and placed 

 about two fathoms from the ground in a young spruce three fathoms high. The branches near 

 the nest, which was not quite touching the bole, were thin, short, and open. Several days 

 afterwards the nest contained one egg ; at the next visit there were two ; and several days later 

 there were four. The nest and eggs were now taken, and it was found that the eggs were 

 slightly sat upon. But first the old bird was snared, horsehair nooses being fixed into the bole 

 of the tree so as to stand out over the nest. The skin, now before me, has been examined by 

 my companions (Messrs. W. H. Simpson and A. Newton) ; and we are without doubt as to its 

 being that of a Pine-Grosbeak. The Sadio lad says that he saw at least ten old nests there- 

 abouts; and Piety says that he has also seen nests in similar situations, but never anywhere 

 else ; i. e. there is always some favourite corner where they are placed year after year. At mid- 

 summer the lad found another nest, about a hundred yards off, containing four young birds 

 scarcely ready to fly. He took it ; and it is now in my possession. The nest which contained 

 the eggs was pulled to pieces by the children in his house at Sadio. The one before me is made 

 externally of an extremely light network of thin trailing twigs laced into each other; one of 



