Bird life in an Arctic spring,
Dan Meinertzhagen
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, March 6, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...to go just below the mountains, and I'm sure that on the top fells one would see the midnight sun. It is light enough now all night to shoot or write. The man from Sirkojarvi came to see us to-day, and he says he knows of a Capercailzie's nest. He told us when we were there that on a certain hill Woolley had taken a Golden Eagle's nest, but they had not had eggs this year as far as I could understand. Finnish seems a most difficult language to pick up, perfectly differenttomost Western European languages, much more like Greek. All I can say are a few words, and fewer sentences. I found four Reed Buntings' nests to-day. June 2nd.--Some of the Drakes are collecting on the river. This evening I saw a flock of twenty Pintail Drakes, and several lots of three or four Widgeon Drakes. These two Ducks seem to be the commonest about here. I also twice to-day saw a Merlin; it seems curious I should not have found the nest. The people here distinguish between this and the Kestrel, and on two occasions eggs have been brought; I have been most careful in accepting them. They all say I shall get plenty later on. The pair I saw, if they were a pair, to-day, were not far apart, and one of them, when I climbed up a tree to a nest, made such a to-do screaming, I thought I was going to get some eggs. However, I shall go again next week and try, for Merlin's eggs from a nest in a fir tree would be curiosities, at any rate, in England. Bob, this evening, caught twenty-three grayling which scaled 14! lbs., the largest being 2 lbs., all on the further bank of the rapid. The boys here snare lots of Ruffs on the shores of the bay, and keep bringing them in for us to buy, and some of them are beauties, but we haven't time to skin. The wind has changed to the North, and it is quite n...