On Birds observed in the Kola Peninsula. 
475 
XXVII —On the Birds observed in the Kola Peninsula , 
Russian Lapland. By Harry F. Witherby, F.Z.S. 
With the intention of crossing Russian Lapland and in¬ 
vestigating the avifauna of the district, my friend Mr. A. F. 
Hamerton and I set out from England on June 3rd, 1899. 
On our arrival at Vardo on June 14th, we found that the 
season was the latest within the memory of the oldest in¬ 
habitant of that town ; and in consequence we had to wait 
several days before a Russian steamer arrived to take us on 
to Archangel. During this enforced delay we made a small 
collection of birds in the neighbourhood of Vardo. June 
19th was spent at Petschenga, and it was not until we had 
returned home that we found that the Messrs. Pearson 
l ad been in the same place five days before us (see Ibis, 
1899, p. 522). Like Mr. Pearson, we found the snow here 
waist-deep and the bare patches round the village alive with 
birds. As Mr. Pearson has already treated fully of the birds 
of this district, I need only say that the Wood-Sandpiper, 
which does not appear in his list, was very plentiful here on 
June 19th. We also found half-finished nests of the Red- 
throated Pipit and the Lapland Bunting, although the few 
small patches of ground bare of snow were practically under 
water; Temminck's Stints also were pairing. 
We left Petschenga on June 20th, in a Russian steamer 
bound for Archangel, but we were still the victims of delay, 
ice and fog keeping us hove to for four days in the White 
Sea, and it was not until June 28th that we arrived at 
Archangel. Let me advise no one to go to Archangel with 
guns and cartridges if lie can possibly avoid doing so. We 
were subjected to an enormous amount of inconvenience 
and considerable expense at the customs, and it was only 
by the kind help of the English vice-consul, Mr. Henry 
Cooke, as well as by dint of very hard work on our own 
part, that we were able to get our baggage cleared in three 
days and so catch the weekly steamer to Kandalax on 
July 1st. The following day we made a stay of some hours 
at the far-famed monastery of Solovetskoi, Within the high 
