BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 37 



quite as stony-hearted ; then returned and settled m the empty nest 

 by my side, and generally tried our sympathies to the utmost. But 

 alas 1 those eggs were a very handsome clutch, only slightly incubated, 

 and the first eggs of the Little Stint we had found west of the White 

 Sea ; so they came to England ! Six or eight pairs of Turnstones 

 appeared to have nests on the low ground, but we only succeeded in 

 finding one, as our time was limited. 



Amongst the eggs found during our stay were those of Richard- 

 son's Skua, Oyster-catcher, Common Gull, White Wagtail, Dunlin, 

 Lapland Bunting, Meadow-Pipit, Lesser and Great Black-backed Gull, 

 Black Guillemot, and Red-throated Pipit. 



A few clouds appeared in the afternoon, but nothing to interfere 

 with the continuous sunshine. I never remember three more glorious 

 days and nights than those we had just experienced. At night we 

 steamed into Pechenga gulf and anchored off the Triphona river. 

 Large arrears of egg-blowing, posting diaries, &c., kept us hard at 

 work till 4 a.m. 



June 2gth, — Where Temminck's Stints are undisturbed they nest 

 freely in the grass close to the houses, and we hoped to find that 

 those we had seen here on the 1 6th had eggs now in the fields round 

 the village, but scarcely a bird was to be seen. There were plenty of 

 cats, however, each house seemed to possess at least one ; and they 

 explained the scarcity of Stints. Cats are an unmitigated nuisance to 

 those who care for birds. Leaving the village, we walked up the 

 Triphona valley; and after crossing a mile and a half of rough 

 country, came to a lake from the lower end of which the river 

 emerges. Five boats drawn up on the shore showed there was good 

 fishing here during the summer. This part is nai-row for some 

 distance, with the hills coming down close on both sides ; but on 

 rounding the last bluff, the lake opens out into a tine sheet of water 

 more than two miles long, and bordered by flat marshy land. A 

 Whooper Swan Gygnus musicus flew close to us at the foot of the lake, 

 and a few hundred yards farther on there were a pair on the water. 



