498 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A WALK ACROSS LAPLAND. 

 By H. C. Playne and A. F. R. Wollaston. 



Once more again this year the 1st of August saw us on our 

 way northwards, wishing indeed that we could have started three 

 months earlier, but ready to make the most of the only time at 

 our disposal. As we travelled over a considerable extent of 

 country, it will be better not to give a list of all the species of 

 birds we met with, but to write some account of what seemed to 

 us of most interest. 



From Trondhjem we went to Hammerfest, through fjords 

 which abound in bird-life ; but the deck of a steamer is not a 

 good point of observation, for one is only able to have a passing 

 glimpse of a bird before it is out of sight. Richardson's Skua, 

 Stercorarius crepidatus, was abundant, and we had excellent views 

 of many a chase which ended in an unfortunate Tern giving up 

 its prey. Of Buffon's Skua, S, parasiticus, with its long tail, we 

 only saw one. We spent a short time on shore at Hammerfest 

 between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m., and though the days 

 of the midnight sun were past, we saw two Dippers, Cinclus 

 aquaticus, playing about the stones of a stream at 12.30 a.m. In 

 the afternoon of the same day we landed at the head of the 

 Alten fjord, and began our walk, which was to bring us over the 

 watershed into Finland, and to the northern shore of the Gulf 

 of Bothnia. 



Bramblings, Fringilla montifringilla, were very numerous 

 among the birch trees, and we could nearly always hear the call- 

 note of Parus bo?*ealis. This bird has also a song quite unlike 

 any song of P. palustris that we had ever heard. The Lapp Tit, 

 P. cinctus, was often with his cousin, but he seemed a much 

 more silent bird. These were the only Paridce that we met 

 with until we reached Tervola, half-way between Rovaniemi and 

 Tornea, where a Great Tit, P. major, was seen searching a 

 window-frame for insects. On a small lake not far from Alten 

 was a Brent Goose, Bemicla brenta, with five young birds. 



