Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/311

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planning of ornithological expeditions has always been a favourite pastime with us, but it was not till the summer of 1901 that the fitting together of different people's holidays would admit of the carrying out of one of our many plans. East Finmark has always been one of our goals, and, because of the ease with which it can now be reached, we finally decided on it as the scene of our explorations. It is quite true that there are no startling discoveries to be made there; but we thought that we should certainly meet with birds we had not yet come across at their breeding quarters, and should have a very pleasant time watching them at close range, in a place where they would be presumably tamer than at home here in England. We expected to be able to study the habits of the rarer waders—e.g. Phalaropes, Stints, &c.—where they were in tolerable plenty, and to make the acquaintance of such rarities as the Red-throated Pipit and Arctic Willow-Warbler. We may state here at once that we were disappointed; the birds were few and far between, and of the rarer waders, &c, we saw not one. In the first place, the year was an unfortunate one; during the first and second weeks in June there was over five feet of snow along the whole of the north coast of Norway, and the weather was so bad that the mail steamers were unable to touch at many of the villages along the coast. For this reason doubtless many of the birds, which had already arrived, were driven south again, and nested further in the interior. In the second place, we wanted to get right away from human habitation, and explore new ground, so did not keep near the coast, where doubtless we should have done better, although even there the avifauna was very scanty in