Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/319

Rh fresh eggs, with darker and heavier markings than the first; this nest was under a rock about half-way up the river-bank, at a spot where it was some thirty feet high, and formed of gravel and sand.

(M. flava).—This species, of the darker-headed variety without any eye-stripe, was commoner on the Maskejok than the preceding. It was, however, only present in isolated pairs, at long distances apart, by the river-bank and on the bogs. They seemed to be earlier breeders there than the White Wagtails, as every pair we saw were busily collecting mosquitoes and other insects for their young. We found them very shy, and so long as we were near they would not go to the nest. The only nest we found was empty; it was built of fine grass, and well concealed under a grass-tussock—in fact, it was the only tussock big enough to conceal a nest anywhere near, as at that particular spot there had been a forest fire, and for a mile or more in every direction there was nothing but blackened birch-stumps, and a few flowering plants which were just beginning to recover from the general devastation.

(Anthus pratensis).—Not a single Pipit of any species was seen in the valley, and very few on the fjeld, where the Meadow-Pipit was almost entirely replaced by the next species. A nest found in a clearing in a wood on the far side of the fjeld on July 8th was probably of this species; it contained five well-grown young.

(A. cervinus).—We were much disappointed at finding so few of these birds. On the fjeld we found them in scattered pairs along the edge of the tree limit, and in the islands of scrub in the hollows. A patch of birch and willows a square mile or so in extent would contain perhaps as many as three pairs. The cocks, often accompanied by their mates, were to be seen taking long flights, high in the air, singing all the time. They would stay in the air for quite a considerable time, and then descend swiftly in a slanting direction to settle in the lower boughs of some willow bush, where they were immediately hidden by the thick foliage, amongst which it was only by carefully following their call-notes that they could be discovered. They were distinctly wild, and would flash out of the opposite side of the bush to another farther off often before we had discovered them sitting. I fancy that most of them were feeding their young, but they gave no indication of the whereabouts of the nest, and hunt as we would in this sea of scrub, which was in places shoulder-high, we could never find one.

(Fringilla montifringilla).—Next to the Willow-Wren and the Fieldfare, the commonest bird in the birch woods was the Brambling. The cocks were not often seen, except when looked for