i62 BIRDS OF RUSSIAN LAPLAND 



The bird must have gone in and out of the top of the tree, as the 

 holes were too small to admit my hand, but she had pushed the 

 down out through the holes before taking the young ones to the 

 water ; a fact which Musters had often observed before although I 

 had not. This nest was a good illustration of our want of " luck," 

 for we had been repeatedly within a few hundred yards of it during 

 the previous weeks, but never near enough to see it through the 

 intervening trees. 



The first little island held nothing, but on the second we were 

 more fortunate, as we found a Red-breasted Merganser's nest with 

 seven fresh eggs, a Wigeon's with six slightly incubated, a Meadow- 

 Pipit's with six, and a Reed-Bunting's with seven much incubated. 

 The Scoters we had hoped to find were not there. Then we rowed 

 out to a large heap of stones, deposited by some old glacier long ago, 

 against a wind so heavy that it was very doubtful for some time 

 whether we should reach the islet. A pair of Herring-Gulls had 

 three eggs, and a nest of the Lesser Black-backed Gull held three, 

 with a young bird just emerging from one of them. Two pairs of 

 Arctic Terns had nested on a small piece of shingle driven up by 

 the waves, and made a great deal of fuss as usual; while a White 

 Wagtail had young amongst the stones, as it accompanied the boat 

 with its mouth full of food. A few Whimbrel completed the 

 population. The lower end of the lake is very shallow, and its 

 bottom covered with large stones, probably ice-borne. 



June ^oth. — Like Mr. Dick in his efforts to keep King Charles's 

 head out of his Memorial, I have tried to avoid the subject of 

 mosquitoes ; but they had now become too obtrusive to be ignored ; 

 and as also there appeared to be little hope of now securing eggs of 

 the two birds we were specially interested in, we decided to return 

 to-day to Kola. The difficulties of transport were even greater from 

 Pulozero ; so we generously presented the telegraphist with the bulk 

 of our remaining stores, for which he was really grateful, and insisted 

 in return on providing our last meal. The first course was nettle 



