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AN ACCOUNT OF THE BIRDS MET WITH DURING 

 A SHORT STAY IN EAST FINMARK. 



By N. F. Ticehuest, M.A., M.B.O.U., and 

 C. B. Ticehuest. 



The planning of ornithological expeditions has always been 

 a favourite pastime with us, but it was not till the summer of 

 1901 that the fitting together of different people's holidays would 

 admit of the carrying out of one of our many plans. East 

 Finmark has always been one of our goals, and, because of the 

 ease with which it can now be reached, we finally decided on it 

 as the scene of our explorations. It is quite true that there are 

 no startling discoveries to be made there ; but we thought that 

 we should certainly meet with birds we had not yet come across 

 at their breeding quarters, and should have a very pleasant time 

 watching them at close range, in a place where they would be 

 presumably tamer than at home here in England. We expected 

 to be able to study the habits of the rarer waders — e.g. Phalaropes, 

 Stints, &c. — where they were in tolerable plenty, and to make 

 the acquaintance of such rarities as the Red-throated Pipit and 

 Arctic Willow-Warbler. We may state here at once that we 

 were disappointed ; the birds were few and far between, and of 

 the rarer waders, &c, we saw not one. In the first place, the 

 year was an unfortunate one; during the first and second weeks 

 in June there was over five feet of snow along the whole of the 

 north coast of Norway, and the weather was so bad that the 

 mail steamers were unable to touch at many of the villages along 

 the coast. For this reason doubtless many of the birds, which 

 had already arrived, were driven south again, and nested further 

 in the interior. In the second place, we wanted to get right 

 away from human habitation, and explore new ground, so did 

 not keep near the coast, where doubtless we should have done 

 better, although even there the avifauna was very scanty in 



