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Show 44 MR. R. COLLETT ON PHYLLOSCOPUS BOREALIS. [Feb. 6, fall in with some of the eastern species that are found inhabiting the shores of the White Sea, but which hitherto have not been observed in Nojway. M y surmise proved correct; for sooner than I had anticipated, on one of the first of m y excursions on the Porsanger Fjord, in the beginning of July, I met with Phylloscopus borealis in several localities on the banks of the rivers emptying into that fjord. On the 4th of July, when traversing (in company with my friend Mr. Landmark, Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, at that time engaged in investigating the rivers of that region) one of the extensive and comparatively luxuriant birch-forests on the slopes of one of those rivers, m y attention was attracted by a song wholly unknown to me, and which I at once set down as that of one of the many species of eastern Sylviidee. I had soon secured two individuals, both male birds; and having at hand Meves's paper about his journey in Northern Russia, I immediately recognized them as belonging to the species described by Blasius, in "Naumannia" for 1858, as Phylloscopus borealis; and we saw and heard several others at the same place. A few days later, when strolling along the banks of one of the other rivers, I again observed this species in several places, in a tract about ten English miles in extent, and again shot two, also males, but was not able on m y comparatively rapid progress through this part of the country to obtain a female. Hereabouts we heard, I should think, ten individuals, all of them singing, and consequently all males. On the 21st of July I first succeeded in shooting a female, in the vicinity of the Pasvig-elv, South Varanger, about 200 English miles east of the locality where I first met with the bird. In the last-mentioned locality I observed several pairs ; but the season being so far advanced, many of the males had probably ceased singing ; and the species doubtless occurred in more places than those where I observed it. M y time on each occasion having been limited, I did not succeed in obtaining either the nests or eggs; the latter perhaps had been hatched previous to m y arrival in Finmark, or, may be, were in process of incubation. Phylloscopus borealis consequently occurs throughout a considerable portion of Finmark in most localities suitable to its habits; probably therefore not further north than 70° 20'. Its distribution in Norway extends from the rivers on the confines of Russia to the birch-woods in the vicinity of the Porsanger fjord, or directly east of the North Cape; and the distance from that fjord to Alten on the west coast being not more than 20 English miles, it will very probably be found to inhabit the luxuriant birch-forests clothing the banks of the Alten Elv. Phylloscopus borealis affects exclusively the loftiest and most luxuriant birch-forests in the vicinity of rivers or lakes; and as it never occurred when the growth was sparse or stunted, I soon learned to tell from the appearance of the locality whether it was inhabited by the little songster. The soil in these birch-woods was always tolerably fertile, and the vegetation luxuriant, reaching, as a rule, up |