244 FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
to produce a painful impression when it breaks on the 
silence of Arctic stillness. 
‘The lakes of Iceland and its streams, says the author 
of The Arctic World, ‘abound with these beautiful birds. 
They are very numerous on the Myvatn or Great Lake, 
where are also seen the wild duck, the scoter, the common 
gossander, the red-breasted merganser, the scaup-duck, 
and other anserines, They are found also upon the salt and 
brackish waters along the coast. It is chiefly at the pair- 
ing season, or at the approach of winter, that it assembles 
in multitudes ; and as the winter advances it mounts 
high in the air, and directs its course in search of milder 
climes. It is in its flight that the Cygnus musicus, appar- 
ently by the flapping of the air with its wings, occasions 
the violin-like music to which reference has been made. 
‘The female builds her nest of withered leaves and 
stalks of reeds and rushes in lonely and sequestered places. 
She usually lays six or seven thick-shelled eggs, which are 
hatched in about six weeks, when both parents assiduously 
guard and feed the cygnets. 
‘The wild swan is shet or caught for its feathers, which 
are highly prized for ornamental purposes; next to the 
skin lies a coat of thick fine down of the purest white 
swan down.’ 
Flocks of wild swans, wild geese, and wild ducks, find 
their way to the southern limit of the forest region of 
Northern Russia and beyond it; and there, in the month 
of August, are seen large flights of snipes passing, it is 
supposed, in migration from the district around Arch- 
angel to the south. If the weather be fine, each flight 
seems to rest only one night; when it is otherwise they 
remain for some days, frequenting marshy ground and 
streamlets, and many fall by the guns of the peasants and 
sportsmen. } 
Of the Tetraonidae, or grouse tribe, which seem chiefly 
to inhabit cold countries, there are numerous species, chief 
amongst which, as being most abundant and most delicious, 
