the tail just as in Mr. Harting's specimen. The under tailcoverts are cream-white; only the longest of them are spotted and streaked with black. The whole of the under parts from breast to vent white barred with blackish, but not so distinct as in the grey bird. Irides brownish yellow; bill horn-brown, paler at the base; gape, legs, and toes pale orange-yellow.

My second bird, procured on May 17th, has the whole of the head, chin, and throat grey, as in the adult; the neck and breast reddish, barred with blackish, but much fainter than in the first bird. The wings are a greyish brown, with the faintest trace only of reddish spots. The scapulars are grey, with only a tinge of brown; the back and rump is that of an adult bird, and the tail has lost nearly all the hepatic colour and almost resembles that of the adult. The under parts are white, more distinctly barred with black than in the first example, and almost as boldly as in the adult grey bird. The under tail-coverts are creamy white, all of them spotted and barred with black. The irides more distinctly yellow. Bill blackish horn, paler on the edges; gape bright orange; tarsi and toes dull yellow.

Here, then, we have the gradual fading away of the hepatic plumage as in Mr. Harting's distinctly red bird shot in April, to one almost grey obtained on May 17th, and I have no doubt that by the first week in June all trace of the red stage would have vanished.

A full-fledged female nestling Cuckoo shot on Aug. 6th, 1895, measures 12 in., one of those shot in May measures 123 in., so that there is practically no increased growth between the young birds of August and what we may call the adult of May, for both adults and young which I have measured vary to the extent of half an inch.

This immature female bird and the specimen procured on May 4th, when compared, show all the markings in common, and it is easy to see how the darker red of the young bird might gradually fade away and leave the light red of the hepatic stage. Then compare the second bird with the first and with one in full grey plumage, and the gradual fading away of the hepatic stage is unmistakably manifest.

The rarity of Cuckoos in the hepatic condition of plumage in England, and I have no doubt as to their infrequency, for throughout my long experience of some thirty years these are the

first two I have met with in the red dress, although I have occasionally had examples with a feather here and there which had not changed colour,-may be accounted for by the fact that the change of colour in the feathers takes place, as a rule, before the birds come to us in spring, and this will also explain their comparative abundance on the Continent.

In a normally healthy bird the change of colour would take place rapidly. The specimens in the red condition of plumage which we get in this country are simply examples of retarded development. The cause of this failure on the part of the bird to change the colour of its feathers at the proper time is known to me, but for the present I reserve information on this point.

It must be remembered that all red Cuckoos met with either in England or abroad have been in the months of April or May. We have no record of one found in June. What, then, becomes of the hepatic Cuckoos after April or May? The only answer, I think, to this question is the theory I have above suggested.

I do not think that Mr. Seebohm is right in asserting that "the female Cuckoos just entering their second year do not breed." From the examination of the ovaries in my two birds, I should unhesitatingly say that they were breeding females. And I cannot refrain from directing attention to the singular fact that all the red Cuckoos whose sex has been ascertained have proved to be females, with the exception of those mentioned by Temminck.

Mr. Harting states that the female examined by him showed no marked development of the ovaries. If the bird was shot early in April, no marked development could be expected in a young bird; but every week-nay, every day-would add to the development of these organs at the breeding period.

To briefly summarise, then, it seems to me that (1) Cuculus canorus in the red or hepatic phase of plumage is the young bird of the ensuing spring; (2) that it does not moult until it is over twelve months old; and (3) that it is a gradual change of colour in the feather which transforms it from the reddish nestling stage to that of the adult grey bird.

IN QUEST OF BIRDS ON THE MUONIO RIVER.

BY A. SUTTON DAVIES.

THE River Muonio, as most ornithologists are aware, forms the natural frontier between Swedish and Russian territory where those two countries adjoin one another, or, more strictly speaking, between Swedish Lapland and Russian Finland. Taking its rise from Lake Kilpis-järvi in Finland, close to the Norwegian frontier, and not more than thirty miles from the Lyngen Fjord in Norway, the river flows in a southerly direction to the Gulf of Bothnia, more than three hundred miles away. The country being low, with no mountains of any size, there are long stretches of still, unbroken water on the river; but on the other hand, there are several places where the rapids extend almost without a break for six miles. The banks are low, and densely fringed with willow-scrub and stunted birch-trees; while great stretches of "tundra," the breeding-places of countless birds, stretch on either side up to the rounded hills which form the river valley. This district has been rendered famous in the annals of ornithology by the late John Wolley, who, making his headquarters some forty years ago at Muonioniska, a little south of lat. 68° N., worked the country round for several years. The upper parts of the river, however, have been but little explored, Wolley himself having only passed through them once on his way from Norway to Muonioniska: and it was with the object of fishing and observing birds on the upper Muonio that we left England on the 18th June last.

So many ornithologists have travelled up the Norwegian coast that the features of its bird-life are now tolerably familiar. As we went northwards Gulls, Oyster-catchers, Terns, Richardson's Skuas, and Guillemots (Uria troile and U. grylle) became more and more frequent. At Tromsö, where we had to spend several hours on June 25th, we found young Fieldfares and Bramblings just leaving the nest in the birch-woods. The night of June 25th-26th was spent on the island of Sjaervö, lat. 70° 3′ N., where by the light of the midnight sun we visited a colony of Herring Gulls situated upon the top of a hill above the sea. Although there was an inaccessible cliff close by, with plenty of nesting room, the Gulls apparently preferred the flat ground at

the top, which was covered with nests. Most of the eggs were somewhat incubated. On our way down from this colony we disturbed a hen "Ryper" (Lagopus albus) from her nest under a rock. The nest, which was artfully concealed by a curtain of trailing plants which hung down from the rock above, contained ten incubated eggs, very much like those of our Red Grouse, but slightly smaller. On a pebbly beach at the foot of the hill we found a nest of the Oyster-catcher (Hæmatopus ostralegus) containing two eggs.

Skibotten, our destination on the Lyngen Fjord, was reached on the evening of June 26th, and we at once began our march towards the frontier, following the little Salmon River which falls into the fjord here. Yellow-hammers and Blackcaps were both seen and heard joining with the Redwings, Bramblings, and Mealy Redpolls in the general bird-chorus which began at 1 a.m. Higher up the valley we fell in with Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails, Bluethroats, and Rough-legged Buzzards; also with mosquitoes, that did not cease to remind us of their presence until we returned to Skibotten twenty-eight days later.

At Helligskoven, a little mountain hut occupied by a Finn with a Lapp wife, we rested for twenty-four hours. Here we found a nest of the Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail in a hole at the foot of a birch, with well-fledged young. There was also an addled egg, which resembled almost exactly the egg of the Yellow Wagtail. On comparing it with specimens of the latter at home it was impossible to distinguish between them. Here we saw and shot a specimen of the Northern Black-bellied Dipper: we did not see a single bird of this species after crossing the frontier. We crossed into Russian Finland on June 28th, and rested in an unoccupied shelter on the shores of Kilpis-järvi, the lake from which the Muonio takes its rise. In the willow-scrub near the house Bluethroats, Lapland Buntings, and Red-throated Pipits were very numerous; we found a nest of the latter in the side of a grass tussock, containing four incubated eggs.

As it would be an endless task to enumerate the birds seen each day, it will be more convenient to give a general summary of the observations made during the month spent between Finland and Sweden; a river separating the two countries, we were constantly passing to and fro, and it is therefore unnecessary to make any more marked distinction between them.

Of Thrushes we observed only the Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)
The Fieldfare all the way down
Fir-trees do not occur

and the Redwing (T. ilacus).

to Kaaresuando was very uncommon. higher than lat. 68° 30′ on this river, and it was not till we reached the fir-woods that we saw a single bird of this species. We only found one colony, and the natives all agree that upon the upper Muonio the Redwing, whose song is to be heard everywhere, is far the commoner of the two.

We did not find many Wheatears, and never saw a Whinchat. The Redstart is fairly common, and is known to the natives by a name signifying "poor, or worthless, sort of a Bluethroat." It generally builds in deserted holes of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

The Willow Wren was the only species of warbler observed, and this was very abundant. The Finns, who are nearly always keen observers, could not tell me of any other species of warbler.

The Bluethroat (Cyanecula suecica) was very abundant in the willow-scrub; its song continued all night, even when all other birds were silent-i. e., from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. This bird has marvellous powers of imitation, and the long continuous strain, consisting of the songs and notes of other birds connected by little passages of warbling, reminded us greatly of the Sedge Warbler.

Of Tits, the Northern Marsh Tit (Parvus borealis) and the Lapp Tit (P. cinctus) were the only species observed, and these were very uncommon, being seen only in the fir-growth.

Around every house were one or two broods of White Wagtails; but as there are only a dozen houses between the frontier and Kaaresuando, a distance of seventy miles, they can only be called proportionately plentiful. Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails swarmed along the sides of the river, and in the marshier parts of the "Uoma" or tundra-like moors.

We found the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) in several places; but the predominating species was always the Redthroated Pipit (A. cervinus), one of the characteristic birds of the Uoma. We discovered three nests: those found on June 28th and 29th contained incubated eggs; but one found at Keinovuopio on July 27th contained five fresh eggs. We did not observe the Tree Pipit (A. trivialis) or the Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa atricapilla); the latter species was not recognised by any of the Finns when I showed them my note-book in which I had made drawings of all species which I thought likely to be met with.