126 . THE ZOOLOGIST. 



mountain plateaux, and shows no variation in plumage. The 

 Pomatorhine or (as Prof. Collett would call it) the Broad-tailed 

 Skua nests nowhere in Europe but in the Eastern Siberian 

 tundras. In the high stony uplands the reindeer-moss grows 

 most luxuriantly, the district is studded with innumerable lakes 

 and extensive morasses, covered with dwarf birch and willow 

 scrub. These are the breeding quarters of various species of 

 ducks. Some Whoopers, the Lesser White-fronted Goose, no 

 bigger than a Mallard, and the Bean Goose (Anser segetum), two 

 skins of which, lately added to the Copenhagen Museum, were 

 obtained in 1891 by the Danish Expedition in Eastern Greenland 

 in latitude 65° N. 



In the more stony tracts, amongst silver-grey lichen, saxi- 

 frages, and other dwarf plants, nests the Dotterel (Eudromias 

 morinellus), here completely alpine in its habits, and rarely 

 nesting below the highest tree-line. Here, too, is found Lanius 

 excubitor, a species subject to variation in the wing-markings, but 

 which Prof. Collett has clearly shown must be considered one and 

 the same, and breeding indiscriminately amongst themselves. 



In great Lemming years, when these little rodents increase 

 beyond all calculation, the uplands swarm with large predacious 

 birds, especially Bough-legged Buzzards, Short-eared Owls, Snowy 

 Owls, and from the richness and abundance of their prey, these, 

 too, become unusually and abundantly prolific, the Snowy Owl 

 having as many as ten eggs in a nest. It will be remembered 

 that exactly the same tendency to unusual fecundity has often 

 been recorded before, and especially was observed in connection 

 with the Short-eared Owls during the recent plague of Field 

 Voles in Southern Scotland (see 'Zoologist,' 1893, p. 131). 



Of late years the Arctic avi-fauna has shown a decided 

 tendency to take up ground to the west. The Shore Lark — 

 which in the last thirty years has become so common a migrant 

 across Heligoland, and more recently on the east coast of 

 England — is a case in point, so also probably the Siberian 

 Willow Wren. There are, however, species found in Northern 

 Bussia which, so far, have not occurred in Finmark ; such are the 

 Bustic and the Little Buntings, Motacilla eitreola, Anthus gustavi, 

 and the Terek Sandpiper (Terekia cinerea) y Bewick's Swan, the 

 Smew, and the larger White-fronted Goose, the former two being 

 north-easterly forms, have not been found nesting in Norway. 



