194 



75mm. It was constructed principally of fine moss and lichens, 

 closely interwrought with the strong silky threads which certain 

 species of Araneidae spin round their eggs. Amongst the other 

 materials were thin. dry pine twigs, and here and there a tuft of 

 the down of Cirsium. The inside was thickly lined with the feathers 

 of small birds, amongst which those of FringiUa sphms could be 

 readily distinguished. 



Ruticilla phocni curus, Lin. 



Xumerous in Alten, near Bosekop, and on Tromsø in the 

 months of June andjuly 1872 ; it islikewise of frequent occurrence 

 in East Finmark, and has been found breeding near Renø (70° 20'). 

 At Salsvand. north of Namsos. I found 23^ June 1^71 a nest with 

 8 eggs. at a distance of less than 80 yards from a nest, then 

 occupied, of the Haliaetos albiciUa. 



A nest tåken from the hollow trunk of a birch tree on 9th 

 June 1872 was constructed chiefly of the hair of Myodes lemnius. 

 and lined with the feathers of Lagopus albus. 



Cyan er ul a s m e r i t a, Lin. 



Gommon in birch undergrowth in Finmark and on Tromsø; 

 in West Finmark, it was most abundant along the shores of the 

 Porsangerfjord and in Alten. From the middle of July full growi 

 birds of the year were to be seen almost everywhere. 



On the southern fells this species would seen to be steadily 

 increasing from year to year. Botn on the Dovre and Fillefjeld, 

 and their ramilications, it is very abundant in wooded and 

 willowed marshes: at the latter end of July 1872, this species 

 with their full grown young struck me as being the most num- 

 erous of all the small birds in the wide marshy tract round Fok- 

 stuen on the Dovrefjeld. a locality in which nearly the whole 

 of our alpine fauna is found represented. At the same time 

 individuals of this species were occasionally seen in the sub- 

 alpine districts of Gudbrandsdalen; it is by no means however 

 probable, that the bird ever breeds here ; it merely repairs from the 

 adjacent fells at the close of the breeding season. In the lowlands 

 they are rarely observed, and only on their migratory passage, 



