BIRDS MET WITH IN EAST FINMABK. 277 



at first. The nest was merely a scrape in the reindeer-moss, about a 

 dozen yards from a small pool of water. The three eggs were about 

 half-incubated, and rather more distinctly marked than the usual type, 

 with very little of the cloudy suffused markings. 



Red-throated Diver (Colymbus septentrionalis). — On two occasions 

 a pair of these birds were seen fishing in one of the upper pools of the 

 river, and once a pair — probably the same— were seen on a tarn 

 about a mile from the same place. There were no signs of a nest 

 round the margin, and no Divers were seen on the lake or in any of 

 the fjeld tarns. 



Skua {Stercorarius parasiticus ?). — One night on the fjeld two birds 

 were seen flying some way off, which, through the glasses, were certainly 

 Skuas, and, as their tails were noticeably long, they were possibly 

 Buffon's Skuas. 



Arctic Tern {Sterna macrura). — Every time we were on the lake 

 we saw eight or ten Arctic Terns ; they were always flying rather high 

 up, and on one occasion they were mobbing an Osprey. They were 

 possibly breeding on one of the further lakes, but, owing to the great 

 difficulty of getting the canoes up the intervening streams, we never 

 succeeded in penetrating so far. 



Although the results of our small expedition were nothing 

 out of the ordinary, and somewhat disappointing, the open life 

 in a high latitude, and in the vast solitudes of forest and 

 fjeld, was, with all its drawbacks — and those not inconsiderable 

 ones of mosquitoes and other insect-pests — quite enjoyable, and 

 one can look back at it now, far from its humming throng, as a 

 delightful experience. It is possible that anyone enjoying a 

 better season, and penetrating farther into the wilds than we did, 

 would do much better. Two pieces of advice we would offer to 

 anyone thinking of doing so : go prepared with plenty of " bug- 

 juice," and with your minds made up for a perpetual mosquito 

 war; and, secondly, take your canoes up lightly loaded, sending 

 most of your equipment over the fjeld to the lake by pack-horses, 

 and thus avoid many wearisome porterages. 



