BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 3 



May 22nd and 23rd we spent at Risb with our old friend Herr 

 Jakobsen and his daughters. The name Riso is applied to a group 

 of islands (all his property) ninety-nine in number, which carry some 

 amount of herbage, besides various bare rocks. The amount of bird- 

 life congregated here in the breeding season is enormous, and some 

 idea of this may be formed from the fact that in a good year the 

 owner sends from eight to nine thousand eggs, chiefly Gulls', to 

 market. In 1896 we anchored for two or three days in a narrow 

 passage between two of the islands. The birds soon became accus- 

 tomed to the presence of the little steamer, and the picture presented 

 by hundreds of Eider Duck Somateria mollissima, Gulls, &c., upon land 

 and water, on a bright calm night, when the much over-praised " Mid- 

 night Sun " endeavoured to justify its reputation, was one not easily 

 to be forgotten. 



White-tailed Eagles Halia'etus alhicilla are not extinct here, I am 

 glad to say, for we saw three or four this year, but they are seldom 

 allowed to rear their young ; and all the nests we visited were old 

 ones, unoccupied for several years. On the island of North Fulgo 

 (Bird Island) these Eagles can breed in peace, for the cliffs are so high 

 and dangerous that none of the natives will descend them on a rope, 

 though the Government offers a reward for both eggs and young. 

 This island is the breeding resort of Puffins Fratercula arctica, in 

 countless numbers, and when on steaming past it in 1896 I fired a 

 gun several times to make them rise, the reports roused eight White- 

 tailed Eagles from various parts of the cliffs. 



Herr Jakobsen showed us a Starling still in the flesh, Sturnus 

 vulgaris, he had recently shot, and which he said was the first seen 

 on the islands. He had no idea what the bird was. On our arrival 

 at Skaaro two days after, the cooper attached to the whaling establish- 

 ment had two more Starlings, shot this year and stuffed. He also 

 had not met with the birds here before, although he knew them well 

 in the south of Norway where his home was. 1899 was probably tlie 

 first year Starlings had extended their range so far north among the 



