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Show 1877.] MR. R. COLLETT ON PHYLLOSCOPUS BOREALIS. 45 to the knees ; the most conspicuous plants were Geranium sylvaticum, Chamcenerion angustifolium, Melampyrum, Myrtillus nigra, various species of Gramineee, &c. In such localities several pairs were often found breeding, not far apart; and sometimes I could hear two, and even more males singing simultaneously. As a rule, however, they were somewhat scattered. It invariably shunned localities where the soil was wet and spongy, selecting, in the forests it affects, comparatively dry and elevated spots, which it inhabits in company with Phylloscopus trochilus, Cyanecula suecica, Turdus iliacus, Fringilla montifringilla, and Linota linaria, likewise Parus cinctus and P. borealis. The song of the male birds rendered them more easy of detection than the females, which were probably just then sitting, or feeding the nestlings. Notwithstanding the season was far advanced, they sang frequently and for a considerable time together, not only in the middle of the day, but late in the evening and early in the morning; nay, on one occasion, I heard one singing in the middle of a rainy night (this individual was one of those preserved.) The song in summer is consequently not confined to any particular time of day. It consists of a but-one-syllable note, zee, zee, zee, zee, rapidly reiterated a dozen times in succession, the commencing strain bearing some resemblace to that of Sylvia curruca or Emberiza citri-nella; then succeed one or two disconnected hissing sounds, tseers, tseers, a trifle lower in tone than the main song, but still audible at a considerably greater distance than the corresponding tones of Phylloscopus collybita (after its two-syllable song), which can only be distinguished in its immediate proximity. The song is repeated several times, after which come intervals of greater or less duration when it is silent. The hissing sound was also uttered when the bird was frightened, and was the only note I heard from the female. The calling note (hveet) of Ph. collybita and Ph. trochilus was never uttered by Ph. borealis. Once only did I hear another and far lower song, which I at first mistook for that of Parus cinctus, and which bore a striking resemblance to the usual note of that species, the closing syllable being somewhat drawn out. One I heard singing in this manner was shot and preserved; it was imitating, in all probability, the song of Parus cinctus, a habit characteristic of another of the singing birds of Finmark, Acrocephalus schoenobeenus. As late as the 22nd of July the males were in full song in the vicinity of the Pasvig-Elv, South Varanger. Though not, strictly speaking, shy, these birds exhibit, as a rule, greater wariness than Ph. trochilus, and if scared, would not always allow you to get within shot. They were remarkably brisk in their movements, scudding to and fro through the leafy tree-tops in pursuit of insects, and were rarely seen on the lower branches or in close proximity to the ground. They generally sing while fluttering from branch to branch, precisely as the other species of Phylloscopus do. The localities they inhabit being exclusively such as swarm with mosquitos, and -the summer of 1876 having been unusually pro- |