356 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



swarmed on these fells this summer, tlie Buffon's 

 skua was unusually numerous in this neighbour- 

 hood, and from first to last I obtained more than 

 thirty specimens of old birds, besides many eggs, 

 and some young. But from all I could hear, this 

 was a very unusual occurrence, and years may 

 elapse before they will appear again in such num- 

 bers on these fells, although never a year passes 

 without some being seen. It appears, therefore, 

 that the northern stretch of this large fell range 

 is the summer home of this skua, which in winter 

 is occasionally met with as far south as the British 

 Channel. I cannot hear of their breeding, how- 

 ever, further south than "Peleekaisin," perhaps 

 100 miles south of Quickiock. All the Laps with 

 whom I spoke were well acquainted with this bird. 

 We got our first nest on the 3rd of June, and con- 

 tinued to take fresh eggs until the end of the 

 month. I myself never but in one instance saw 

 more than two eggs in a nest. Once I obtained 

 three ; and as I have taken a single egg from a 

 nest hard sat on, it appears that they do not 

 always lay two, which, however, we may take to 

 be the general number. The nest is nothing more 

 than a few pieces of dried hay laid in a hole 

 scratched in the ground, always in the vicinity of 

 water, and I never saw it on a real snow fell. 

 Although these birds live in colonies, you do not 



