772 
BIRD-LIFE. 
hundreds and thousands, whence they attack, and if 
possible demolish, every other living being that presumes 
to invade their territory. These insects form almost the 
sole inhabitants of the Tundra; scarcely a beetle is to he 
seen, or a butterfly wending its zigzag flight over the 
marshy ground. At this season men and quadrupeds 
alike flee this pestered district, and seek peace and quiet 
near the sea, where in winter they sought warmth and 
food. Only a few species of birds take up their abode on 
the morass, and wage a war of extermination against these 
blood-thirsty nuisances, who are powerless to annoy 
them. These birds are the Lapland Bunting (Emberiza 
lapponica), the Dotterell (Charadrius morinellus ), and our 
Golden Plover: they feed the whole summer long on 
nothing else but mosquitoes and their larvae, and on 
these they rear their young. Here, in the deepest 
solitude, scarcely disturbed by a human being or a bird 
of prey, they live, rejoicing in a superabundance of food, 
bringing into being a fresher and a higher life to the 
desert. They are as suited to these morasses as the 
Courser and Sandgrouse are to the sandy desert, 
serving to render the dreary appearance of the locality 
more striking than ever. When wandering through 
these swamps one hears their sad, and almost plaintive 
cry, resounding on all sides, and that of the Golden 
Plover fills the air by night as well as by day. This 
bird is to he met with wherever one bends one’s steps, 
in pairs, families, and flocks, as the summer advances. 
In Lapland, according to my estimate, in favourable 
localities several thousand pairs of these birds inhabit a 
single square mile, for the beat of one couple is very 
limited, being hardly two hundred paces in extent 
perhaps. 
