Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/527

Rh On Aug. 6th we climbed above the forest growth, and walked over the open fjeld, where the ground is partly covered with dwarf birch, and there are many lakes and swamps. Here were Redshanks, Totanus calidris, and Greenshanks, T. canescens, and other waders we were unable to identify. Golden Plovers, Charadrius pluvialis, were numerous, and their very melancholy whistle could be heard throughout almost all that country. We had the delight, too, of seeing Dotterels, Endromias morinellus, and three young birds in down. Not far from them was a Shore Lark, Otocorys alpestris, which seemed rather shy, and ran along the ground in front of us; we saw one more on the next day.

In the evening, at the stooe Suoluobme, a Wood Sandpiper, Totanus glareola, was shot. About the farms and hay-huts there was generally a crowd of Snow Buntings, Plectrophenax nivalis, so tame that they would run on the ground close to our feet. They were a pleasing substitute for the House Sparrow, a bird we did not see until we were thirty miles south of Kittila. Bluethroats, Cyanecula suecica, were very abundant where there were any bushes in damp places. A colony of Sand Martins, Cotile riparia, nested in a steep bank of the Alten river.

On a small pool of shallow water at Kautokeino we found three Grey Phalaropes, Phalaropus fulicarius, swimming with a buoyancy which was beautiful to see; while at the same time there were standing at the edge of the water a Ringed Plover, Ægialitis hiaticula, a Temminck's Stint, Tringa temmincki, and a Ruff, Machetes pugnax.

At Sieppa, a small Lapp settlement near the Finnish frontier, were hosts of House Martins, Chelidon urbica. The Lapps and Finns give these birds a warm welcome, and put up ledges under the eaves of their wooden houses, on which the Martins build their nests as closely together as they can be packed. Round each small farmhouse the birds could be seen in hundreds busily feeding young in the nests. These wooden houses, usually several miles apart, seem to be the only suitable nesting places for House Martins in the country. After leaving Sieppa, just before crossing the watershed, we came upon a flock of Whimbrels, Numenius phæopus.

For almost all the rest of the walk we were in forest, and here most noticeable was the absence of the Great Black Wood-