144 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



extract the remainder as the ladder was more fitted to his weight. 

 After much trouble he reached the upper hole and took out a young 

 Hawk Owl just changing from down to feathers, so the anxiety of the 

 old birds was explained. Leaving the men to build the ladder, I had 

 strolled up the valley and found a Lapp Tit's nest in a pine tree, with 

 seven eggs slightly incubated. The male came and fed the female 

 in the next tree a few feet off while I was cutting out the nest. 



We had probably a unique experience to-day, for Musters went 

 bird-nesting accompanied by two tame reindeer which persisted in 

 following him for three or four miles, until he finally left them asleep 

 beside an empty Reeve's nest, from which he had taken four slightly 

 incubated eggs. I was joined in my fishing excursion by a tame 

 Bean-Goose which saw us start in the boat, hurried down the bank, 

 and swam after us like a little steam-tug, the water mounting half- 

 way up her neck. When at last she caught us up she swam close 

 to the boat for more than half-an-hour occasionally tapping at the 

 side with her beak. This bird was devoted to our Russian, who was 

 rowing, and followed him everywhere about the place. The tele- 

 graphist had received two young birds (both, I believe, females) the 

 previous season from another district, and had kept them during the 

 winter under the kitchen-table surrounded by some wirework. Now 

 the bills of these two birds were very similar in colouration to those 

 figured by Mr. Frohawk in the Field, October 4th 1 902, as Anser segetum, 

 while that of May 22nd had even less black than he shows on his 

 Anser arvensis. Musters shot another Bean-Goose on June 20th at 

 Maselsid with bill intermediate in colour between the live birds and 

 that shot on May 22nd. This bird did not appear to have com- 

 menced to breed. The bird of May 22nd measured 2 J inches on 

 the culmen. The bill of another bird (female) shot June 26th 1895, 

 at Lutni Russian Lapland, is also intermediate in colour between 

 those depicted in Mr. Frohawk's two illustrations, and measures 

 2f inches. She had three young in down with her ; and the bill of 

 one of those we caught is all black except the nail, which is white. 



