446 THE ZOOLOGIST?. 



approached retire. We heard no song from Fieldfares in Tromso. 

 As usual, numbers of other birds were collected round and among 

 the Fieldfares. We noticed many Bramblings and Mealy Redpolls, 

 a pair of Redwings, some Willow Wrens, and, most curious of all, 

 a pair of Merlins nesting in the midst of the colony ; these, with 

 a few Willow Grouse, made up the bird-life in the wood, which 

 just at that part was alive with birds; elsewhere in the dale birds 

 were scarce. There were some Fieldfares on Grindo when we 

 visited it on the 17th, and a clutch of six eggs was brought to us 

 by a son of the man living on the island. 



T. iliacus. — We sometimes used to hear the Redwing's run of 

 sweet whistling notes, and saw a few pairs of this shy, quiet bird. 

 A pair had a nest amidst a colony of Fieldfares on Tromso, 

 about fifteen feet up on a slender birch. The pair nesting in the 

 Tromsdal had young, for one bird was carrying food, but we could 

 not trace this shy bird to its nest. The Redwing in summer uses 

 the usual winter alarm-note " quip," and also an angry quick 

 rattling cry, somewhat like a Song Thrush's ; I only heard this 

 from the last-mentioned pair. 



Saxicola oenanthe. — Several onTromso; some on Grindo, and 

 also quite at the top of the Floifjeld on the mainland (about 2500 

 feet). Some of the males were of a beautifully clear grey, were 

 cleanly marked, and had the black very distinct ; the females 

 were dark in colour. The Wheatears here perched freely on roofs, 

 and on birch trees, &c. 



Ruticilla phoenicurus. — Not uncommon about the clearings 

 round the houses, and the edges of woods and of willow swamps 

 along the shores. 



Cyanecula suecica. — Bluethroats were fairly common in the 

 willow-swamps, where on warm days mosquitos made careful 

 watching rather irksome. I have been bitten by the mosquitos 

 of three continents, and have met with some more poisonous 

 than those of Arctic Europe; but for downright savageness and 

 strength of apparatus I give the palm to the last named ; they 

 think nothing of biting you through your clothes where they fit 

 closely. These bogs were clothed in places with a thick growth 

 of willow scrub of three species, one with downy and two with 

 smooth leaves. In the middle of June the catkins were golden 

 and the leaves half expanded — flowering and leafing going on at 

 the same time here, as the time is short. The catkins smelt very 



