BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 19 



from him about them. The larger chmxh had been erected over the 

 ashes of the monks killed by the Swedes in 1590, and contained a 

 number of icons and pictures. One of the latter, protected by a 

 mahogany case and glass, was well painted and very pleasing in colour, 

 with the finish of an old Dutch picture. 



The ice on the river had just broken up for several hundred yards, 

 and the floating masses were being piled up below by the current, form- 

 ing a dam which raised the level of the river a yard during our short 

 stay. The upper reaches were still covered with ice as far as we could 

 see from a hill near. On returning to the village on the fjord we had 

 more time to devote to the birds, which were swarming on the manure- 

 heaps and open ground round the houses. Unfortunately we had left 

 the guns on board, for one of the first birds which attracted attention 

 was, I feel sure, a Petchora Pipit, Anthus gicstavi. It allowed us to 

 approach within fifteen yards, and to watch it for some time through 

 our glasses ; a larger and handsomer bird than the Meadow-Pipit, with 

 the breast more heavily striped. The next day, when we had guns, the 

 bird was gone. We also noted a House- Sparrow Passer domesticus, a 

 parasite of civilised man we scarcely expected to meet with here, 

 Grey-headed Wagtails Motacilla viridis, and Red-throated Pipits Anthus 

 cermmis. 



Our return journey occupied forty minutes, for though the tide 

 was with us some time was wasted by running aground on sand-bars. 

 A bank of sand forms the left side of the bay for some distance, and 

 is composed of stratified layers deposited at an angle of 45"*, covered 

 by two or three other beds of sand laid horizontally. The lower layers 

 have probably been deposited in the same manner as those we saw in 

 process of formation in Novaya Zemlya in 1897. 



June i6th. — To-day we took our guns to the village, but quite 

 two-thirds of the birds had disappeared ; we secured specimens of the 

 House-Sparrow, Grey-headed Wagtail (male and female), Lapland 

 Bunting, and Whimbrel. A man at the monks' house objected to 

 my shooting the Sparrow on the roof, so I persuaded the bird to go 



