510 



(P. Z. S. 1877, p. 43) as follows: — "In the summer of 1876, when visiting for the third time 

 during the last six years the province of Finmark, mainly with the object of studying fishes and 

 marine invertebrata, I resolved on devoting a few days to excursions along the forest-clad slopes 

 of the rivers that flow into the great Porsanger, Laxe, Tana, and Varanger fjords. Among the 

 more southern of the vertebrate species occurring here in considerable numbers, I hoped to light 

 upon forms not hitherto observed in those regions (the most northerly of our country), and 

 further elucidate the question as to what influence their occurrence in different degrees of 

 latitude exerts on their outward structure and general habits. These parts of Finmark having 

 never before been visited by any naturalist, it struck me as not impossible that I might 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 Phijlloscopus 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 luxuriant 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 Sijlviidce. 



" I had secured two individuals, both male birds ; and having at hand Meves's paper about 

 his journey in Northern Russia, I immediately 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 

 female, in the vicinity of the Pasvig Elv, 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. 



" Phj/l/oscopus borealis consequently occurs throughout a considerable 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 twenty English miles, it will very 

 probably be found to inhabit the luxuriant birch-forests clothing the banks of the Alten Elv. 



" Phylloscopus borealis afl'ects exclusively the loftiest and most luxuriant birch-forests in the 



