BIBDS MET WITH IN EAST FINMABK. 269 



fresb eggs, with darker and heavier markings than the first ; this nest 

 was under a rock about half-way up the river-bank, at a spot where it 

 was some thirty feet high, and formed of gravel and sand. 



Blue-headed Wagtail (M. flava). — This species, of the darker- 

 beaded variety without any eye-stripe, was commoner on the Maskejok 

 than the preceding. It was, however, only present in isolated pairs, 

 at long distances apart, by the river-bank and on the bogs. They 

 seemed to be earlier breeders there than the White Wagtails, as every 

 pair we saw were busily collecting mosquitoes and other insects for 

 their young. We found them very shy, and so long as we were near 

 they would not go to the nest. The only nest we found was empty ; 

 it was built of fine grass, and well concealed under a grass-tussock — in 

 fact, it was the only tussock big enough to conceal a nest anywhere 

 near, as at that particular spot there had been a forest fire, and for a 

 mile or more in every direction there was nothing but blackened birch- 

 stumps, and a few flowering plants which were just beginning to recover 

 from the general devastation. 



Meadow-Pipit (Anthus pratensis). — Not a single Pipit of any species 

 was seen in the valley, and very few on the fjeld, where the Meadow- 

 Pipit was almost entirely replaced by the next species. A nest found 

 in a clearing in a wood on the far side of the fjeld on July 8th was 

 probably of this species ; it contained five well-grown young. 



Bed-throated Pipit (A. cervinus). — We were much disappointed at 

 finding so few of these birds. On the fjeld we found them in scattered 

 pairs along the edge of the tree limit, and in the islands of scrub in the 

 hollows. A patch of birch and willows a square mile or so in extent 

 would contain perhaps as many as three pairs. The cocks, often 

 accompanied by their mates, were to be seen taking long flights, high 

 in the air, singing all the time. They would stay in the air for quite a 

 considerable time, and then descend swiftly in a slanting direction to 

 settle in the lower boughs of some willow bush, where they were im- 

 mediately hidden by the thick foliage, amongst which it was only by 

 carefully following their call-notes that they could be discovered. They 

 were distinctly wild, and would flash out of the opposite side of the 

 bush to another farther off often before we had discovered them sitting. 

 I fancy that most of them were feeding their young, but they gave no 

 indication of the whereabouts of the nest, and hunt as we would in 

 this sea of scrub, which was in places shoulder-high, we could never 

 find one. 



Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla). — Next to the Willow- Wren 

 and the Fieldfare, the commonest bird in the birch woods was the 

 Brambling. The cocks were not often seen, except when looked for 



