478 Mr. H. F. Witherby on Birds 
The scarcity of birds in this country greatly disappointed 
us. During the first two-thirds of our journey the country 
might be said to consist half of lakes and rivers, and half of 
pine-forest, with here and there a marsh. The lakes and 
rivers, although often dotted with islands, were singularly 
devoid of bird-life, while the interminable pine forests 
were nearly as destitute. Even the marshes, few and 
far between, were disappointing. Often we trudged six or 
eight miles to some marsh of which the Lapps had told us, 
and after tramping over it the whole day would see nothing 
but a couple of Whimbrel, a Wood-Saudpiper, and perhaps 
a Greenshank, although the marsh looked as if it ought to 
be a perfect paradise for birds. Only two of all the many 
marshes we explored were productive of a fair day’s collecting. 
The further north we proceeded the thinner the forests 
became, and there the birds increased somewhat, but they 
were nowhere abundant. It may be that in a normal season 
the country contains more birds than it did in 1899, but it 
is difficult to imagine that birds are ever more than thinly 
scattered over the interior of Russian Lapland. 
As I have already mentioned, the lateness of the season 
caused us many delays, and consequently we were too late 
for eggs by the time we arrived in the interior. Before we 
left England and again at Yardo we debated as to whether 
it would not be better to work from north to south, but had 
we done so we should have fared worse ; for, owing to the 
deep and soft snow, the country in the north is quite impass¬ 
able even at the end of June. However, some consolation 
for the drawbacks of the season was derived in observing 
the effects it produced on birds. These effects were especially 
marked in the north. For instance, Willow-Grouse had not 
yet attained full summer plumage at the very end of July, 
and fresh eggs of many birds were to be found at the begin¬ 
ning of August, by which time the mosquitoes had died, the 
berries were ripe, new snow had already fallen on the hills, 
and another winter had almost commenced. 
As this particular portion of Lapland does not seem to 
have been visited before by British ornithologists, I have 
