Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/90

66 long grass just above the shore. One would sometimes perch on a tree. At Grindö, on the 14th, a boy gave us a "hard-sat" egg. On the 20th several were noisy about the Kvalö pools. I put up a young one just able to fly, and another swam out to avoid us.

T. hypoleucus.—The Common Sandpiper was seen on the stream in the Tromsdal above the Lapp encampment, and again on the 24th about the shores of the lake behind Svolvaer.

Tringa temmincki.—On July 20th we landed at Tisnaes, the point of the big island of Kvalö which is nearest to the southern end of Tromsö Island. Walking over the peat-bog where cloudberry showed its ripening fruit, we roused a small wader, which flew round with a trilling note, then settled on a lump of peat. It was presently joined by the other one; no doubt they had young hidden somewhere close at hand.

T. striata.—A Purple Sandpiper was seen on July 23rd on the rocky shore of an islet off Store Molle in the Lofotens. It was excessively tame.

T. alpina.—The Dunlin was seen on the 20th on the Kvalö moors, and was from its manner evidently breeding.

Phalaropus hyperboreus.—Walking over these moors, which strongly reminded me of Wales, we came to higher ground, and reached the series of small lakes of which we were in search. From a pool margined with sedge, a small wader got up and flew anxiously round, with a noise like "wick wick," then settled on the water. We watched both birds, one, probably the female, being rather the larger and brighter of the two. They swam high in the water, with the neck straight, head well up and nodding. Nothing of bird life in Norway pleased us more than this introduction to these trimly-built and confiding little waders. My friend half swam, half waded, out into the pool, and on a spongy islet found a slight hollow in the moss, the empty nest. We then in two places noticed something moving on the water as if a fly had fallen in. The glass showed that the appearance was due to a couple of nestling Phalaropes, which were swimming with scarcely more than their bills above water.

Charadrius pluvialis.—There were many pairs of Golden Plover about these barren uplands; in fact, I have never seen them so numerous on any moor.