BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 15 



bird life had arrived before us, and are depicted in Plate 5. The 

 party consisted of three youths, the eldest about seventeen, and three 

 girls, who appeared to be from eighteen to twenty-two. They had 

 drawn their boat up the beach, and were encamped in one end of it, 

 protected only by a piece of old sailcloth. Although they had a 

 small stove, the arrangement was rather airy for the weather we had 

 lately enjoyed. In front of the canvas is shown a heap of Puffins 

 the people had been catching. This was done by spreading old fish- 

 nets of large mesh over those parts of the ground where the burrows 

 were plentiful ; and the birds seemed to think because their heads 

 would go through, their bodies could follow. The upper snow-drift 

 shown in plate must have been still over twenty feet deep, as it covered 

 all the face of a cliff, except the small portion shown on the sky- 

 line. 



Our chief prize here was a Turnstone's nest with four fresh eggs, 

 on the low spit of land previously described. The nest was placed in 

 a patch of dwarf sallow ten inches high, and near the edge of a 

 bank; the slight depression being lined with a few dry grasses and 

 dead leaves. This was almost the only nest of the species found 

 without long watching ; for, remembering our experiences in 1893,1 

 searched the scrub in hope that a Turnstone might have occupied it. 



We afterwards crossed to Great Heno ; here a party of nine had 

 recently landed in search of birds and eggs, and were seated round a 

 fire, drinking tea. They put a large piece of sugar in their mouths 



keeping," but Susan differed ; and the argument waxed so warm on one occasion he threw 

 her bodily into an old coal-hole under their cage. And yet on most questions of tit-bits 

 and similar matters Susan generally had the best of him by sheer superior feminine ability. 

 Alas ! an acute attack of inflammation, or some poisonous substance, carried him off in the 

 autumn of 1900. I gave another male bird to my brother ; this one also developed con- 

 siderable powers of talking, although he died earlier than Ralph. The fourth bird was 

 given to a lady friend, but unfortunately escaped outside the grounds one Sunday 

 evening and was killed by some loafer. Susan is still in good health. And now for the 

 reason of this long history. Both male birds talked well ; the female has (1904) only 

 acquired a few whistling notes, and to say, " How are you ? " and a friend tells me that 

 his Raven, which he believed to be a female, never showed any disposition to talk. It 

 would be interesting to know whether the observations of others confirm the above sup- 

 position that male birds are more ready to imitate human speech than females. 



