BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 33 



described by Mr. E. Selous. As we lay watching some bird to its 

 nest, suddenly, without the slightest apparent cause, the babel of 

 voices ceased, and every bird in sight, Terns, Gulls, Skuas, and even 

 some of the ducks, would rise into the air in silence, wheel about 

 several times, and then return with redoubled chatterings. We were 

 the only human beings on the island at the time ; nor were there any 

 other large mammals there, or birds of prey. No signal was per- 

 ceptible ; it was as if an electric shock touched them simultaneously. 

 •I noted the same phenomenon here in 1901, and amongst such a 

 mass of bird-life it was very striking. Sometimes these peculiar 

 movements took place at intervals of less than ten minutes. 



A hasty dinner at 9 p.m. and then out to work again. Charles 

 devoted considerable time to positively identifying the nests of some 

 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a large colony of which had commenced 

 to lay near the north and east shores. Not one of this species had 

 been seen on our former visits, so that they are as comparatively late 

 in breeding here as on the Norwegian and British coasts. I spent 

 an hour on the hill above the lake watching the ducks, in the hope 

 I should see one of the Velvet Scoters returning to her nest, and 

 although this idea proved a failure, the time was not wasted among 

 the surrounding bird-life. On walking round the lake I found the 

 Red-throated Divers Golymhus septentrionalis (the only divers seen 

 here), had just commenced to prepare their nests. In a marsh near 

 the lake was a nest of Richardson's Skua containing three eggs, all 

 slightly incubated. This is the only instance in which I have found 

 more than two eggs in the nests of this species. After rejoining my 

 brother, we hunted slowly down the coast to the s.E. point, disturbing 

 two Turnstones which seemed anxious, and watched them for nearly 

 an hour in a biting cold wind — 'for it was now considerably after 

 midnight — -without result. The leading bird sat during most of the 

 time on the edge of an old sea-beach, watching me from the shelter 

 of some coarse grass, but would come no farther, and when at last we 

 went down to the place we could find nothing. On returning the 



