450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



rugged boulders banked up steeply, but did not form cliffs. The 

 description of them which I took down agrees with that of the 

 Grindd birds, but I have noted that the head was a lighter shade 

 than the back. In neither pair could I detect any signs of a 

 rufous or pink shade on the under parts. The song of this form 

 resembles that of our A. obscurus. I was able shortly afterwards 

 to confirm my remembrance of the song of the latter bird, as 

 I was on Flamborough Head, where it is common, in the first 

 week in July. 



Passer domesticus. — I saw a male in Tromso town on the 

 19th, and two birds the next day. Herr Schneider (of the 

 Tromso Museum) told me that the House Sparrow arrived when 

 the brewery was built, fifteen years ago ; but I am sure they are 

 still very scarce. The male mentioned above had a chirp deeper in 

 tone than usual, and it looked rather dusky; the latter peculiarity 

 might have been the effect of the rain, but a local male in 

 the Museum bears out the observation, being very dusky, especially 

 on the cheeks. 



Fringilla montifringilla, — Abundant, but generally in the 

 colonies, near the edge of the birch-woods and about the trees 

 round outlying houses. We saw some on Grindo. But almost 

 everywhere on Tromso where there were birch-trees, except in 

 the deeper parts of the woods, you could hear the loud, long-drawn, 

 metallic, twanging "tweeee" or "weeeech"; but this is not always 

 twanging, merely harsh and creaking in some cases. The bird has 

 a modified Chaffinch's "whit"; the call-note is a sharp "kip," and 

 there is also a Canary-like "chee-wee." Very occasionally I heard 

 a few sweet twittering notes. The male is a most striking bird 

 in summer dress; the female looks remarkably grey in hers. In 

 the Tromsdal we found many Bramblings in the Fieldfare colony, 

 and found three nests, all in slender birches, some twenty feet 

 from the ground in a fork of a branch from the trunk, or in the 

 fork of the main stem. One that I took down was formed of 

 fibrous grass and the silky fur of the White Hare felted together. 

 Outside this was a quantity of bright green moss (this is always 

 apparent) worked up with a little fur and some grey lichen on the 

 outside. In the fabric were some dead birch-leaves, a bit of 

 Lemming's fur, and some white Grouse-feathers ; the nest was 

 thickly lined with these last, with the addition of a few horse- 

 hairs. It was a thick-walled, bulky nest, and contained two 



