BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 145 



I have had far less experience of these birds than Mr. Frohawk, still 

 I cannot resist expressing the opinion that A. segetum and A. arvensis 

 will ultimately prove to be the same species, at different ages. 



The first Brambling's nest was found to-day in a spruce, with 

 one egg. Their earlier nests were generally in these trees, as the 

 birch leaves had not opened sufficiently to afford them any shelter. 

 Musters spent the whole day in attending to the Spotted Redshanks 

 and Greenshanks, but without result. He had seen a Great Grey 

 Shrike, Black and Red-throated Divers here for the first time. One 

 of our Lapp boatmen came at night, having rowed ten versts up the 

 lake to bring us nine eggs of the Goosander, taken from a hollow tree, 

 and two fine pike for the telegraphist. He had kept the down for 

 bed-making, but promised to bring it when he heard the eggs were 

 useless without it, and this he afterwards did. Both pike and perch 

 are common in some of the lakes here. 



June Sth. — As there were no Godwits about Pulozero we decided 

 to spend two or three days at Maselsid and try to learn more of the 

 pair we had seen there. Taking two men to carry blankets and food, 

 we arrived in three hours, and " camped " in the room already men- 

 tioned. After lunch we walked round the small lake near the huts 

 and struck up towards the north-east to another marsh, as we had 

 seen one of the Godwits fly in that direction on our last visit ; but 

 there was scarcely a bird on the marsh. A fox and a buzzard on the 

 other side were so much engaged in watching each other, they took 

 no notice of us. We then turned into a wood on the ridge near and 

 found a colony of Fieldfares. All the nests contained five eggs, each 

 in similar stages of incubation. Those birds we had found breeding 

 at Pulozero had not laid full clutches, though that place is at a con- 

 siderably lower level. Only one nest of this species found in 1903 

 contained six eggs, and all the Redwings had five, whereas in 1901 

 and previous years both species generally laid six, and in some 

 instances seven. I was told on my return to England that passerine 



birds here had generally laid short clutches this year, so that the 



K 



