The Life Sifory of a MoaJji RcdpnU. 123 
floes against tliis roek-lioimd coast and floe is piled on floe 
with tremendous rending and )'iving and groaning and grind- 
ing. Tiien you cross the Varangcr Fjord and come to the 
little village of Lutni and a river. The river flows through 
a majestic gorge, the sides of which are covered with the 
densest birch -scrub, and, if you follow the river inland to its 
source, you will come to Lalce Ukanskoe, and this was my 
birthplace. Yes, from the hanging birch -wood on the east 
side of the lake I first saw the midnight sun: how I wonder 
if 1 shall ever see it again! 
And wliat is lake Ukanskoe like ? Well, it is a small 
lake of very clear water which lies snugly surrounded by bircli- 
clad hills; the river, which rises amongst some lakes a little 
further inland, flows in at one end and flows out at the other; 
ther(» are islets in the lake where Eed- throated Divers and 
Temminck's Stints nest and "Wood Sandpipers and Shore Larks. 
In the Willow-swamp at the lower end the Great Snipe breeds. 
On the placid waters of the lake Scoters and Goosanders and 
Long-tailed Ducks paddle about and in the thich-woods may 
be heard the jiote of the Redwing and the Bramlde-finch. High 
over head the Rough -legged Buzzard sails in wide majestic 
circles. 
I was hatched in a charming little nest made of grasses, 
felted with reindeer-hair, lined with feathers of the Snowy 
Owl and snugly fixed in a fork of a birch, close up to the 
trunk. We were a pretty tight fit in that nest, for there were 
no less than six of us and we kept one another so warm that 
we hardly needed any brooding. How we grew! You must 
remember that in the short Arctic summer there is no night 
and. though our parents used to take forty winks about 
mid -day and to brood us more closely about mid-night, feed- 
ing went on almost without interruption throughout the twenty - 
four hours. We were never short of food on account of the 
abundance of birch-buds; that is one reason why Mealy Red- 
polls are such late breeders. In Devonshire the birch puts 
forth its buds in the last week in March, but in Lapland 
there are never any buds until the end of the first week in 
June and in a late season not till the third week. Then there 
are Crane-flies and Saw-flies and big, fat Mosquitoes in 
millions— so big and so fat that the Shore-larks will often 
bring up their broods on these alone, 
