BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 51 



When a bird of prey is not hungry he will stand these attentions in 

 a marvellous manner, generally beating a retreat ; when he is empty 

 they often end in disaster. We thought the bird was a young White- 

 tailed Eagle. The Tern had young, and the Skuas two eggs nearly 

 hatched. 



The trail showed that a large wolf had passed near the camp soon 

 after Ivan and Einar left yesterday, and appeared to have followed 

 them part of the way to the monastery. I am sure some readers 

 will ask why we did not go to look for those wolves, instead of 

 wasting so much time over birds. Well, we had no dogs, and only 

 1 6-bore guns ; so we left them to come and look for us ! of which 

 there was little chance in the middle of summer. 



July lotli. — To-day we went to some hills visible in the distance 

 from camp. Of course Ivan took us on a path, but after a mile or 

 two of it we rebelled and struck up through the woods, much to his 

 disgust; however, the mosquitoes avenged him, for they were had 

 to-day, especially in the damp parts. Charles saw a little dusky 

 mouse-coloured bird here with some white, which he thought was a 

 Pied Flycatcher Muscicapa atricapilla, but he could not get a shot at 

 it ; he said it was catching flies like a Flycatcher. 



Above the tree-line we added two new birds for this district, viz., 

 the Dotterel and Shore-Lark. The eggs of the former, shown on 

 Plate 21, were so much incubated that when the drill went in the 

 beak came out through the shell. Still, the bird was wild and took 

 forty-five minutes to settle; there Avere mosquitoes up on the hills 

 also, even at this elevation of 8 5 o feet ! Another Dotterel was brood- 

 ing three young on the same hill. The male Shore-Lark had his beak 

 full of insects, so probably had young ; his " horns " were very distinct 

 as he stood watching us. Two pairs of BufFon's Skuas on these hills 

 had eggs, both clutches being nearly ready to hatch. The nests were 

 on dry peaty ground between 600 and 700 feet above sea level, and 

 were lined with a little lichen. We also found two nests of Wheatears 

 here, both under stones ; the first contained five young, and the second 



