511 



vicinity of rivers or lakes ; and as it never occurred when the growth was sparse or stunted, I 

 6oon 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 to the knees ; the most conspicuous plants were Geranium sylvaticum, 

 Chamoenerion angusti folium, Melampyrum, Myrtillus nigra, various species of Graminese, &c. 



" In such localities several pairs were often found breeding, not far apart ; and sometimes 1 

 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 iliacus, Fringilla montif ring ilia, and Linota linaria, like- 

 wise 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 any particular time of day. It consists 

 of a monosyllabic note, zee, zee, zee, zee, rapidly reiterated a dozen times in succession, the 

 commencing strain bearing some resemblance to that of Sylvia curruca or Emberiza citrinella ; 

 then succeed one or two disconnected hissing sounds, tseers, tseers, 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 bisyllabic song), which can only be distinguished in its imme- 

 diate 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 call-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 cinctus, 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 pro- 

 bability, the song of Parus cinctus, a habit characteristic of another of the singing birds of 

 Finmark, Acrocephalus schcenobmius. 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 scared, would not always allow you to get within shot. They were remark- 

 ably 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 Phyllo- 

 scopus do. 



"The localities they inhabit being exclusively such as swarm with mosquitos, and the 

 summer of 1876 having been unusually productive of those insects, my investigation of their 



