124 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



There is no better station than Tromso for observing Arctic 

 bird-life. Everywhere may be heard the harsh chatter of Field- 

 fares, nesting in colonies, but never more than one nest on each 

 tree, with generally a pair or two of Redwings in each colony. 

 Many of the characteristic birds of the north are to be seen, as 

 Motacilla viridis, Arctic Bluethroat, Red-throated Pipit, Bramb- 

 ling, Mealy Redpoll, Phylloscopus borealis, and Sedge Warbler 

 (Acrocephalus phragmitis), besides numerous waders and ducks. 



Many of our more common birds reach Tromso, and their 

 highest northern range is about lat. 70° N., where they sing and 

 nest in the dense birch-woods and willow-scrub which clothe the 

 luxuriant basins which debouch on the sides of the Arctic fjords ; 

 such are the Song Thrush, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Redstart, 

 the two Flycatchers, Tree and Meadow Pipit, Ring Ouzel, Wheat- 

 ear, White Wagtail, Hedgesparrow, Willow Wren, and Cuckoo, 

 with others. The Chiffchaff hardly goes further than just beyond 

 the Arctic circle. To these valley bottoms also come innumerable 

 Martins (Chelidon urhica), breeding in colonies, several hundred 

 pairs together, on the precipitous mountain walls, under shelves 

 and small projections of the rock, attaching their nests just as 

 they do on the cliffs at Flamborough. The Sand Martin also 

 goes as far north as it can find nesting-places, and will drive its 

 horizontal tunnels into the peat-roofs of houses, exactly as we 

 have seen their holes driven into the perpendicular sides of the 

 deep peat drains cut on Thome waste in Yorkshire. Space will 

 not allow of following Prof. Collett in his charming pictures of 

 the nesting haunts of such well-known Arctic birds as the Snow 

 Bunting, Shore Lark, and Lapland Bunting, the former of these 

 feeding its young especially on the large crane-fly (Tipula). 



The author thinks the song of the small birds is not quite 

 the same, some of the strains being different and unknown in the 

 south, and this variation he attributes to the immensity of the 

 areas, and to the habitable spots being so few and far between, so 

 that each male sings only to its mate, and competition can never 

 arise, each song being independent of the influence of others. 

 Those who are interested in this subject cannot do better than 

 consult the Encyclopsedia Britannica, art. Birds, " song." 



But of all the bird-voices in these desolate wastes, none is 

 so conspicuous as the call of the male Willow Grouse, which 

 exactly resembles that of the Red Grouse of Britain, from 



