Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/86

62 Linota linaria.—We never failed to meet with the Mealy Redpoll wherever there was birch or willow cover of any but the most stunted growth. The first nest found, on July 13th, was thickly and warmly lined with feathers (fowls') and willow down. It contained six eggs, which were incubated; but two others, found the same day, each contained three fresh eggs. Willows seemed to be preferred, and in some cases the nest was only three or four feet from the ground. On July 15th a crowd of tourists from the Hamburg-American liner 'Auguste Victoria' visited the Lapp encampment. In passing through the woods many of them brushed past, and must almost have touched, a Mealy Redpoll's nest, placed shoulder-high in a birch tree beside the track. The five eggs were warm, though the bird was not sitting. At Skjervö, on the 18th, there were many Redpolls about the village, pecking at dandelions, or perched on fences, fish-rails, or path. One or two of the cocks were brilliant little fellows, with blood-red forehead and crimson breast.

L. flavirostris.—On July 23rd, landing upon an island off Svolvaer, we soon recognized Twites by their note. The locality seemed well suited to this moorland species, for, though there was only a scanty growth of heather, the peat soil was covered with berry-bearing plants—Vaccinium myrtillus and uliginosum, Arctostaphylos alpina, and, in wet spots, Rubus chamæmorus, yielding the luscious möltebaer.

Fringilla montifringilla.—At Tromsö one could not walk in any direction beyond the outskirts of the town without hearing the Brambling's drawling note. A nest found just after our first Fieldfares' on July 12th was some eight feet from the ground in the fork of a birch. It was an untidy nest, with Willow Grouse feathers worked into it. The bird fluttered off her four eggs, squealing and tumbling about. The cock bird then appeared; his note was a sharp "kip, kip," which, often heard subsequently, always reminded me of the Meadow-Pipit. Another nest, higher up than the first, was thick-walled and deep, made of moss, bents, and lichen, lined with hair and "rype" feathers. On the 15th the young had just left a nest near the Lapp camp, leaving an addled egg. Both the old birds were much excited. Our last nest, found on the 19th on the far side of the island, had small young ones and an egg, the latter probably hatching.