BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 115 



whales {Delphina'pterus leucas, Pallas) were as numerous as seals are in 

 an ordinary year. I had only seen the latter animals near Novaya 

 Zemlya previously, and the natives said they had always been rare 

 on this coast. Yet in spite of their poor condition, the cod-fish 

 fetched a good price, and all the men were earning so much money 

 they could not be induced to accept other work. 



Most of the country round Vardo was still covered by deep snow, 

 and snowstorms with frost during some twenty out of the twenty- 

 four hours of the first days of our visit showed that we had not yet 

 parted with winter. Ravens were common, for we counted eleven 

 together ; one pair had eggs among the rocks behind the town, and 

 another nest of this species on an island near contained young ; the 

 former nest being one of the very few I have seen which could be 

 easily reached without a rope. Other kinds of birds were only com- 

 mencing to arrange for their summer duties. Snow-Buntings were in 

 flocks on our arrival, but most of them separated into pairs during 

 the week ; the males began to sing, and several birds were carrying 

 building material about before we left. We watched two Sky-Larks 

 Alauda arvensis for some time on the 1 1 th, a bird I do not remember 

 to have seen here before. A pair of Peregrines Falco peregrinus 

 passed close on the loth, probably on migration, as they do not 

 breed in the neighbourhood. We also noted a Starling on the 1 1 th, 

 the first we had seen here ; this species has therefore extended its 

 range to the extreme north-east of Norway. A number of male 

 King-Eiders were swimming near the shore, but only a few of them 

 were in adult plumage ; and a large flock of Long-tailed Ducks 

 remained for some days about the island. 



On May i6th we at last escaped from all the smells and other 

 disagreeables of Vardo in the Russian mail steamer, a good boat 

 built at Newcastle in 1895; and, after a quiet passage across the 

 Varangerfjord, we anchored the same evening in Pechenga gulf. Ice 

 still covered all the upper part of the fjord as in 1899, and our 

 captain pushed the ship into it 40 or 50 yards, but could not pene- 



