74 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



had come, and Redwings were singing in all directions — as they do 

 day and night just now. 



My chief object in visiting the Russian coast so early this year 

 was to obtain eggs of the Bean-Goose Anser segetum, which is the 

 commonest goose of the Murman coast, as far as my observations go, 

 for we had always been too late to find anything but goslings in 

 previous years. It was rather trying, therefore, to be told on arrival 

 we were a fortnight too soon ; and still more so, to have that con- 

 firmed by two or three days' unsuccessful search. Thinking it 

 probable the natives would know where to find the nests, I engaged 

 a nice young fellow — the husband of the girl on the sledge in Plate 

 28 — with whom Kjeldsen could speak a little, to go with us. As 

 both he and the principal men all said that most of the geese 

 nested in the district round Lake Ukanskoe, we started in that 

 direction, but kept considerably more to the right than we had 

 previously done. The day was warm, and at first this young man 

 took us up the hills at a most uncomfortable pace ; after two miles 

 of it I was wondering how I could put the break on him, when 

 fortunately he saw a reindeer belonging to a neighbour which had 

 broken loose. This deer had no intention of returning to Lutni at 

 present, but it was caught after considerable trouble by a very 

 amusing artifice. Then our troubles were over, for nothing would 

 induce that beast to walk beyond a certain pace, and one which we 

 found corresponded exactly with our own ideas on the subject. 



I soon discovered our young friend's chief idea was to find his 

 birds first — a very reasonable one ; he would crawl up to the top of 

 a ridge, and then search the valley and slopes in front with my 

 glasses, which he very quickly learnt to use. We made a long loop 

 course over the hills with Lake Ukanskoe at the end of the loop, 

 but without result; for we only saw three pairs of geese, or rather, 

 I strongly suspect, the same pair three times, as we found them some 

 distance farther on in the direction they went when put up. Each 

 time they were feeding on patches of sphagnum-moss — their favourite 



