Bird Life in an Arctic Spring : the Diaries of
Dan Meinertz- hagen and B. P. Hornby. (R. H. Porter. 4s.)—Some of our readers may have already heard of Mr. Dan Meinertzhagen, an enthusiastic ornithologist, whose sad death at the early age of twenty-three cut short a life which seemed full of promising energy. At the age of seventeen he had begun a monograph on "The Eagles of the World," illustrated by himself with drawings which (to judge from those given in the present volume) showed a rare talent. In addition to the short diary, which he wrote from day to day during an ornithological ex- pedition to Lapland in 1897, this little book gives some account of the young naturalist's life at Harrow, at Oxford, and at his home, Mottisfont Abbey, near Romsey. At 2flottisfont he formed a large collection of living raptorial birds. Leaving Troms0 on April 10th, 1897, Mr. Meinertzhagen and Mr. Horriby travelled to Skibotten, and thence after six days' sledging reached Muonioniska, on the river Muonio, which divides Scan- dinavian from Russian Lapland. Here they established them- selves for about two months, and had the rare pleasure of seeing the break up of the Arctic winter and the arrival of the migratory birds which annually resort to the Arctic forests and moors for their breeding season. The sudden melting of the snows by an almost tropical sun lays bare the seeds and berries of the preceding summer, and hatches millions of insects. First come the smaller birds, seed-eating and insectivorous, to enjoy the feast. They are soon followed by numbers of birds of prey to feast upon them. The day, and often the night, was spent in shooting and collecting, in skinning the specimens and blow- ing eggs. Of some two thousand eggs which were obtained only one was cracked in the journey home. The diary gives a most interesting idea of this Arctic paradise of the ornitholo- gist, and we can only regret that the writer did not preserve a much faller account of his journey and observations.
Previous page
