97 
of the Breeding of the Waxwing. 
when one thinks of the uncertainty of getting it again. At the 
same time I should tell you the Sardio lads found a nest which 
they believed to have been, a last yearns Korwa-rastas. On this 
river no one has seen the bird of late years, and very few know 
it at all. One old fellow, Nalio Aaron, says he saw one north 
of Nalima in 1853, and another in 1854. Martin Pekka showed 
the picture to many people in the Sodankyla and Kittila districts, 
but he could not make out that the bird was at all known, and 
in all his journey, when he kept a good look-out, he did not 
see one; so that even this year it seems to have come very 
sparingly and locally—just in the district north, east, and south 
of Pallas-tunturi. In 1853 I told you of a boy, Sieppi’s Johan, 
who described a nest of birds he had found some years ago, 
which, from my interpreter’s version, I thought might be that 
of the Waxwing. This boy, on being shown a skin, said he had 
never before seen the bird. 
“ It is a relief to think that I am not bound to go to Russia 
next spring unless I like it, as I before felt that I was. I almost 
think 1 may leave the unbounded riches of the Nova Zernbla 
coasts and of the north of Siberia—their Steller’s Duck, Curlew 
Sandpiper, Little Stint, Knot, Sanderling, Grey Plover, Grey 
Phalarope—to younger adventurers. 
* ijc >}c sfc 
“ Almost every day (and it is now the sixth since that of my 
arrival here) Ludwig has told me the whole story of the Siden- 
svans’ nest, and I am never tired of hearing it:—How the season 
was very backward; how, in their expedition, he and Piko 
Heiki were getting very much out of spirits at the little success 
they met with. How he saw this bird in the sunshine. How, 
when at last the nest was found, he could scarcely believe his 
eyes; how he went to it again and again, each time convinced 
when at the spot, but believing it all a dream as soon as he was 
at a distance. The rising and falling of the crest of the bird, its 
curious song or voice—all he is eager to tell over and over again; 
and I have the fullest version, with all the f I said/ f Heiki said/ 
f Michel said/ f Ole said/ &c. These Sardio lads, as you have 
heard me say formerly, have a good knowledge of the small birds 
of their neighbourhood, but they are none of them sure whether 
VOL. HI. H 
