Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/325

Rh markings of dark brown. While so easy to find by marking the bird, the nest would be next to impossible to discover by merely searching the ground, so well do the eggs harmonise with the moss and dead leaves. We must therefore be accounted specially fortunate in finding another nest, which we did on July 8th, while walking over the fjeld; one of us nearly trod on the eggs before seeing them. There did not appear to be any bird about, though probably she had only just run off, as the eggs were on the point of hatching. These eggs were of the same type as the first.

(Ægialitis hiaticula).—One pair were seen, and were probably breeding, on a shingly point in one of the lower reaches of the river. We did not stop to look for the nest, as we were then poling up stream, and were disinclined to waste time over nests we did not want. They were the only pair seen in the valley.

(Charadrius pluvialis).—Fairly common all over the fjeld, and nearly all of them had young. We found them most difficult birds to watch, except from quite a short distance, so well did their plumage match the yellows and greys of the reindeer-moss. Often, when we heard one whistling, it was only by catching a momentary glimpse of the white stripe along the side of the black breast that we could find the bird at all. They were a great nuisance to us on the fjeld, as they seemed to think our only object in coming up there was to find their young; they would fly all round us, and then settle on a tussock, piping the whole time, and each pair seemed to escort us a mile or more, until it could hand us over to the attentions of its neighbours. Several times flocks of six or eight were seen, and were possibly non-breeders, as they did not seem to affect any particular tract of country, though all were in full plumage. On July 4th we found a nest of four eggs, all on the point of hatching. The behaviour of this bird was very different to that of any of the others, rising straight off the nest about thirty yards in front of us; she flew low and perfectly silently for about three hundred yards, and then settled on a tussock and commenced piping. On July 8th we found a young one about three days old; we caught sight of it first running on the bare moss, and on this occasion the old birds behaved in a precisely similar way to all the others.

(Gallinago sp.?).—One was seen on June 28th. It was drumming over a marsh on the fjeld along way off.

(Totanus hypoleucus).—There were several pairs of these birds nesting at intervals along the banks of the river the whole way up. A nest of three eggs was found by one of the Finns