ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF LAPLAND. 355 



then suddenly drops, and it is next to impossible 

 to get it up a second time without a dog. I only 

 found one nest of this sandpiper. It was in a 

 high fell meadow, where I obtained so many of 

 the Lap buntings, and I shot both old birds. 

 The eggs were four, very pyriform ; ground colour 

 grey-brown, covered all over with minute spots of 

 light umber-brown, nearly hiding the ground 

 colour; size, 1^ in. by § in. The broad-billed 

 sandpiper may, however, be considered as among 

 our rarer sandpipers, and I can never account 

 for the fact of some of our sandpipers (the whole 

 of which class lay the same number of eggs) being 

 so much rarer than the others. 



I have seen the common tern (Sterna hirundo, 

 Lin.; "fisk tarna," Sw.) and the common gull 

 (Larus canus, Lin. ; " fisk mase," Sw.), both at 

 Quickiock, the latter high up over the fell lakes ; 

 and I shot one specimen of the lesser black-backed 

 gull (L. fascus, Lin. ; " sill mase," Sw.), flying 

 over the Tana river; but they were all three rare, 

 and, except Buffon's skua (of which more here- 

 after), these were' the only species of this family I 

 saw in this neighbourhood. 



Buffon's skua (Lestris Buffonii, Boie; "skaiti," 

 " haskil,"- Lap ; " fell labbe," Sw.). Owing, as it 

 was supposed up here (but this was not my 

 opinion) to the quantity of lemming which 



