I50 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



explore them. I noticed some large moraines between the second and 

 third hills. The only eggs were a clutch of five Meadow-Pipits on the 

 edge of the tree-line. An old nest of the Mealy Redpoll in one of the 

 highest bushes confirmed our experience at Lutni that they breed as 

 high up as the scrub extends. On our return at 9.1 5, 1 heard Musters 

 had had equally bad luck. Both Greenshanks and Spotted Redshanks 

 were absent from the places where we had seen them before, and he 

 had found nothing except a nest of young Fieldfares. 



June I yth we spent again on the large marsh to the south, and saw 

 some Red-necked Phalaropes for the first time here. The chief find 

 was a Grey-headed Wagtail's nest with seven eggs, an unusual number. 



June I Mil. — Bramblings are irregular in their time of nesting, for 

 while some had laid up and commenced to sit, others were now 

 building. The species was very common round the head of Pulozero 

 lake, and suffered considerably from the crows or some similar robber, 

 as we often found that nests we had marked were rifled. Nearly half 

 the nests we took contained seven eggs, so the cause of small clutches 

 in the Fieldfares did not affect the Bramblings. The first Willow- 

 Wren's nest was seen to-day. 



June igtli was too wet and close most of the day to do anything 

 besides fish, so we filled our larder and that of the telegraphist. A 

 Sedge- Warbler was singing some time near Musters, by the river ; I 

 had seen one two days before on the large marsh. In the evening I 

 went over the hill to the lake near which the Hawk-Owls had their 

 nest. A male Tufted Duck was feeding in the shallow water at the 

 head, and his mate was sitting on nine eggs near the other end. The 

 nest was prettily placed on a little spot of land, and would have made 

 a good photo had the camera been there. A pair of Red-throated 

 Divers seemed anxious, but had no nest on my side of the lake ; their 

 eggs were not sufficient inducement to make the circuit of the other 

 side, so I left them and the duck to hatch out in peace. These Divers 

 were scarcer than the Black-throated here ; we expected to have seen 

 more of both where lakes were so numerous. 



