Smithsonian Institution
ibrartes

Alexander Wetmore |

1940 Sixth Secretary 1953

Ch. Wilmer

John Morell TW TAilliam

Birrp Lire in Arctic Norway.

BIRD LIFE
ie AAC riC NORWAY,

KM Popular Brochure

RY

ROBERT COLLEDTL

Foretgn Member, 7.8.

Professor of Zoology tn the University of Christiania

TRANSLATED BY

me RED HENEAGE COCKS, M.A. E.Z:S:

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Reser. POR LER
18, PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W.

1894

SMITHSONTA ry,

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LIBRARIES.

TO

PROFESSOR ALFRED NEWTON,

Male MESReS sc Hea Ses

PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,

THE ENGLISH EDITION
IS
(BY PERMISSION)

DEDICATED.

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This paper was written for the Second International Ornithological
Congress, held in Budapest, in May, 1891, and a portion of it was read
during one of the meetings of the Congress. The Author wishes there-
fore to call attention to the fact that it is adapted to an audience whose
conceptions of the natural features of the country described could not be
supposed to be great. And in order that the character of the paper in its
Norwegian form should be entirely popular, sundry sections or remarks
contained in the original edition, were omitted, which might be assumed
to have interest for specialists rather than for general readers.

Examples of all the species of birds treated of, may be found set up
in the Christiania University Zoological Museum, the greater number of
them collected in the very regions, whose nature is here sketched from
observations during seven summers’ wanderings in those parts of the
country.

NOTE BY THE, TRANSEATOR:

‘¢ Bird Life in Arctic Norway ” was originally written for the
congress in German, a revised and somewhat condensed edition
being subsequently published in Norwegian.

It is this latter edition that, at Professor Collett’s request, I
have, and I fear very inadequately, translated. However im-
perfect the result, the attempt has given me much pleasure, as
some slight acknowledgment of kindnesses shown me by the
author, in my many migrations through Christiania.

The appendix was added at the suggestion of Mr. Sclater,
by whose advice also I have (with the author’s consent) altered
the synonomy and arrangement of species to accord with the
British Ornithologists’ Union list, as more convenient for English
readers.

I have to thank Mr. T. Southwell, F.Z.S., for kindly looking
over the proof-sheets, and making many valuable suggestions.

As Fe

ERRATA.

. ix., 1. 8, for ‘*as the Swiss Alps themselves,” vead ‘‘ like the Swiss Alps.”

. x., second line of last paragraph, for ‘‘ open ” read “* stretch.”

6, 1. 14, for *‘ which drowned,” read ‘* drowning.”

. I1, 1. 6 of 3rd paragraph, for ‘‘ fifteen ” vead ‘* sixteen.”

. 11, l. 1 of 4th paragraph, for ‘‘ extends” vead ‘* lies.”

. 14, 1. 14, for ‘‘songsters” read ‘‘ warblers.” (The sentence should have been
altered in accordance with the b.O.U. arrangement. )

P. 14, 1. 8 from bottom, dele the dast ‘‘ the,” and next line for ‘‘heads” sxead

““head.”

P. 17, line 4 from bottom, for ‘‘ especially of the” ead ‘‘ especially the.”

P. 27, last line but one, for ‘‘ occupied ” read ‘‘ covered.”

P. 36, last line, for ‘‘ thick ” ead ‘* turbid.”

APMENCIXeNpA Ul) le Ty fo7e <9 Lain reads 12)* and lags) fo7 “gO vend “Ala x

rg ro! hg! Pod Pg

ORWAY is the northern tourist land; the Switzer-
land of North Europe.

Norway also has its shining Ice-braes, larger than
any other glaciers in the continent of Europe. It
C) has waterfalls of matchless beauty, which precipitate
themselves with noise like thunder, a depth of 700 feet, to where
no human eye can reach, nor foot tread their margin. It
also has its Alps, mighty and snow-clad, as the Swiss Alps them-
selves, although of less considerable heights ; but the nature and
ordinary character of the Alpine scenery in the two lands, are
entirely different. At the foot of the Swiss Alps winds a belt
. of chestnut and walnut trees, on their slopes flourish even vines,
and the inhabitants grow wheat on the shores of charming lakes
or in the warm valley bottoms, where the mulberry-tree, the fig-
tree, and the maize also flourish. The Norwegian Alps rise as a
rule from a lofty mountain plateau; their summits are sometimes
decidedly imposing, and their confused masses of mountain-ridges
and deep valleys picturesque; but no trees wreath the bases
of the peaks, except the uppermost stragglers of the stunted pines
and birches; and in the corries on the mountain-sides and upon
the plateaux, large tracts are covered with thickets of the silver-
gray mountain-willow, which in turn are succeeded higher up by
monotonous areas covered by various species of lichen.

Here, in the belt of gray mountain-willow (Salix lapponum, and
S. glauca), is the home of the Willow Grouse, here is the goal of
the sportsman’s longing ; but the height—between three and four
thousand feet—above the level of the sea, and the more northerly
situation, cause these mountain-wastes from which our proudest
peaks rise directly, to be only inhabited in the summer-time
by scattered ‘“‘ Sater” folk (or mountain-dairy people), or to be
frequented by the numerous summer visitors,—Tourists and
Sportsmen.

x

But Norway has another group of Alps, which Switzerland
has not. This is the continuous mountain range which raises its
snow-clad summits directly from the sea itself, in an almost un-
broken chain from the borders of Nordland, straight on, nearly up
to North Cape.

Through six degrees of latitude these sea Alps form a continu-
ous wall, shutting off the inner, somewhat lower districts; and
ending particularly picturesquely, when they form as in Lofoten,
a separate branch, which bends out from the principal series,
and extends like a row of gigantic shark’s teeth, floating upon
the surface of the sea, straight out into the Arctic ocean.
‘‘Lofoten’s wall” is seen to the greatest perfection when it is
viewed from the south, illuminated by the rays of an evening
sun, until the last points of land lose themselves far away in
the west, more than 60 miles* to seaward.

At Bodé, a little south of Lofoten, but also within the Arctic
circle, begins Norway’s Arctic region, the land of the midnight
sun. ‘
From here the course les across fjords or through narrow
sounds, where the mountains which rise to over 3,000 feet,
are wreathed on the sea-ward side with a belt of dark-green
mountain-birch (Betula odorata, var. alpigena); whilst their tops, the
whole summer through, bear the remnants of their white winter
dress. Near the North Cape this Nordland scenery first begins to
lose something of its character: the mountains become lower,
and North Cape itself forms a plateau with vertical cliffs down to
the Arctic Ocean, the height of which hardly reaches 1000 feet.

On the eastern side of the Cape the deep fjords of Finmar-
ken open towards the south, and Porsangerfjord, Laxefjord, Tana-
fjord, and lastly Varangerfjord all cut their way, one after the
other, deep into the land. Here the coast scenery is quite
different to what we have seen hitherto. The shores are lower,
partly swampy, and clothed with vegetation, in some places
reminding one of the Tundra region in their fauna and flora ; here
is the home of the Arctic waders (Tvinga and Totanus genera), which
leaving their winter quarters in Mediterranean lands and Africa,

* too Kilometers.

X1

select spots, often while the snow is still covering large tracts,
where they may hatch out their young, during our short but
sunny summer.

Finally, from the inmost heads of the fjords, the land rises up
to the monotonous wastes of Finmarken, or Lapland proper,
clothed with sparse birch-forest, and pierced by rivers and lakes,
regions which have great attractions for the sportsman and
naturalist, but less so for the ordinary tourist, who only seeks
after diversified scenery, and has not patience enough to wage
throughout the short polar summer, a semi-hopeless war against
the mosquitoes which swarm here.

We shall in what follows, treat of some few traits of the Bird-
life in that portion of our land. Let us therefore make in imag-
ination a rapid flight to this north-westernmost corner of Europe,
wander through the three natural zones, whereof Arctic Norway
consists, and each of which shows quite peculiar characteristics,
and in the meanwhile seize by degrees, whatever particularly
strikes our attention on the way. ‘The three natural divisions re-
ferred to are:

I.—The coast district and the belt of islands girding the
coast up to North Cape.

I].—The deep fjords of the Arctic Ocean and the adjacent
river basins in East Finmarken.

I1I].—The interior plateaux of Finmarken, or Lapland proper.

_T is a well-known fact, which moreover impresses
y itself upon every naturalist during his passage north
along the coast of Norway, that the number of
species of birds decreases to an extraordinary extent
towards the north, while on the other hand the
number of individuals increases so considerably,
that hardly anywhere else in our continent do we see bird-life
more richly displayed, than just when we stand on the furthest
point of North Europe facing the Arctic Ocean.

It is especially in the great colonies, ‘‘The Bird Rocks,”
where this swarming bird-life exists.

Such bird rocks make their appearance at intervals along the
whole of the coast of Norway from Stavanger, off and on, up to
Varangerfjord and the Russian frontier, exactly as we know them
on the coasts of Scotland and of the Faroe Isles. But while the
bird-rocks of these districts, the west-European on the one side,
and the Norwegian on the other, have of course, most of their
breeding species in common, as for instance the Guillemot and
Razorbill, the Puffin, the Cormorant and Shag, besides some
gulls, especially the Kittiwake (or ‘‘ Three-toed Gull,” Fissa
tvidactyla): it is remarkable that the Norwegian bird-rocks
wholly lack several species, which form to some extent their chief
occupants in the west-European district.

This is not only the case with the more pelagic species, which
belong to the more open parts of the Atlantic, as for instance the
two Petrels (Procellaria pelagica, and P. leucorrhoa), the Gannet
(Sula bassana), and the characteristic Shearwaters (Pu/ffinus anglorum
and P. majov), which certainly occur occasionally on the Nor-

I

2

wegian coast, but never breed there, although several of them
dwell as near us as the Faroes; but also applies to wholly arctic
forms, such as the Fulmar Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis), which like-
wise breed in multitudes on the Faroes and right down to St.
Kilda, but never nest on the coast of Norway.

And just as the northern point of Norway forms the northern-
most breeding-place for the Razor-bill (Alca torda), so there are
found inversely in Spitzbergen and the large archipelagoes in the
Arctic ocean, certain extreme-northern species, which never
breed so far south as Norway. This applies to a species of
Tystie—Mandt’s Guillemot (Uvia mandti), Briinnich’s Guillemot
(Lomvia bruennicht), the Little Auk (Mergulus alle), the white-
winged Gulls (Larus glaucus, L. leucopterus and Pagophila eburnea),
and others.

The question occurs to us, where do these enormous hosts of
Little Auks, Briinnich’s Guillemots, and arctic Gulls pass the
winter? In hosts, whose numbers we can form no conception
of, they breed on Spitzbergen and the islands in the north of
Franz-Joseph land, as far towards the North Pole as human eyes
have reached. It cannot be said that they take up their quarters
during the winter on the shores of north or west Europe. No
doubt our shores are visited in the winter by a certain number of
Little Auks, to which may be added stray flocks of Glaucous
Gulls (Larus glaucus) and King-Eiders (Somateria spectabilis), or a
solitary Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) or Briinnich’s Guillemot ;
but the Spitzbergen Tystie or Mandt’s Guillemot (Uvia mandtt)
is quite unknown on the European coasts. Here therefore is
not their winter home.

When the polar night with its darkness of some months’
duration broods over the Arctic archipelagoes, there are not
many birds which are able to sustain life there. The Snowy Owl
(Nyctea scandiaca), the Spitzbergen Ptarmigan (Lagopus hyperboreus),
and perhaps one or two other species, do so; but the sea-birds
forsake their nesting places, disappear out towards the open
Arctic Ocean, and quest away where no human being has yet
been able to follow them.

To the north of the arctic circle the bird rocks are more
requent, and larger, than they are further south. With greater

3

or lesser interval they extend in an irregular series from the out-
most extremities of the Lofotens—Ver6 and Rost, up along the
coast of Troms6 to Fugl6 and Loppen; thence they make their
appearance to the eastward in Stappen near North Cape; in
Sverholtklubben in Porsanger; and in several crags on the
Varanger peninsula to Horné by Vard6; and on the south side
of Varangerfjord near the Russian frontier.

What an inexhaustible field for observations, these bird rocks
would be, if we could only pay longer visits to them.

It is well-known that among the rock-fowl both the Razor-bill
(Alca torda), and the common Guillemot (Lomuia troile)* lay their
single,—and in proportion to the size of the bird—colossal egg,
on a projecting ledge in the precipitous face of the cliff; either
quite in the open, or under a projecting slab of stone. The Puffin
(Fratercula arctica) on the contrary, digs with its sharp claws, a
long horizontal passage in the soft stratum of earth on the slopes
of the cliff, between the luxuriant clumps of Cochlearia (scurvy-
grass) and other coast plants: showing a considerable difference
in the choice of a nesting-place between two so closely allied
forms.

But the difference is even greater, if one looks at the young
which issue from these eggs. The Razor-bill produces an
almost entirely naked thing, which, when the mother is away
from it, is obliged to balance itself, as best it can, upon the narrow
ledge of cliff, exposed to the icy north wind, and frequently
drenched by a snow squall or acoldrain. From the Puffin’s egg,
which lies some yard-and-a-half deep down in the close and
sheltered tunnel, there comes a chick, clad in a downy covering
so loose and fluffy, that it resembles a living ball of down, from
which a beak and feet project.

The reason for this difference between the young of the two
species is hard to understand. It is one of the many unanswered
questions, to which the economy of nature can give rise so
abundantly.

Where the space is scanty, the Razor-bills and Guillemots
* These two birds are respectively known in Norwegian as the Broad-

billed-, and the Pointed-billed-, Alke; the latter is also called the Lomvi.—
Transl.

4

sometimes lay,—which the two species commonly do in company,
—their solitary egg so close to one another, that the sitting birds

YOUNG RAZORBILL.

nearly touch each other. When then, one of them leaves its egg,
it frequently rolls out of position on the hard rock floor, and it

a

5

may often happen that two of them exchange places, and when
there are as many as twenty birds sitting on the same shelf, it is
not always possible for each individual bird to continue to sit upon
itsownegg. A certain degree of fellowship also prevails between
neighbours from the fact that the male bird does not feel himself
strictly bound to the one female alone.

Of the numerous bird rocks, I will only in a few words, touch
on a single one, which in several respects is extremely remarkable ;

og Seine MAN
Gis

MA Bar) =
See < :

YOUNG PUFFIN.

this is Sverholtklubben, situated on a projecting point a little to
the east of North Cape. The fact is that it is probably the
biggest in Norway, perhaps in the whole world.

Sverholtklubben is inhabited almost exclusively by a single
species, a little gull,—namely the Kittiwake (or Three-toed Gull,
Rissa tridactyla). “When the tourist- or mail-steamer, full of

6

passengers, approaches the steep cliff wall, whose height is about
joo feet, and whose breadth is considerably more, but where
nevertheless, pretty well every available space of so muchas a
foot in size, is taken advantage of by the gulls, so that the whole
wall seems white with the masses of birds resting on it, whilst at
the same time “the air is darkened,” as the saying is,—by the
swarms on the wing. A shot is generally fired from the ship to
cause the birds perched on the rock to take wing, but so accus-
tomed are they to this attention, that it is only an inconsiderable
portion which can be prevailed on to rise. When King Oscar II.
visited Finmarken in 1873 in a man of war, the ordinary salute
was first tried, but without particular success; then one of the
corvette’s large cannon opened its mouth; it fesounded on the
mountain wall like a thunder clap, which drowned the noise pro-
duced by the innumerable screaming throats, and then, says
Professor Friis,“ who was present, even the old individuals were
forced to turn out.

Each spring, about the middle of May, when the eggs are laid,
the proprietor of the Klubbe takes as many of them as he can
reach with a long pole from the foot of the mountain; ropes are
not employed here, as on the Faroe islands. The maximum
clutch is three eggs to a nest; the yield is about 5,000 eggs, some
years not so many; in others as much as double the number.
These represent nearly 2,000 pairs of birds; all the remaining
portion of the mountain-wall remains untouched. But moreover
it appears, that for every breeding pair (with entirely white head)
the cliff is inhabited by perhaps eight to ten young individuals,
recognizable by the black ring on the nape of the neck, which do
not breed. In determining the total number we shall reach up to
millions, and these masses are crowded together like white snow-
flakes upon the narrow resting-places, and at the foot, of a single
vertical, black area of comparatively insignificant extent.

On what do these swarms live? In greater or lesser com-
panies, often in rows as straight as a line, train after train come
in at fixed times of the day, passing from the sea or over the

* Professor J. A. Friis is Professor of Lappish in Christiania University, a
well-known sportsman, and author of numerous interesting and valuable works. —
Transl.

—

/

more open fjords towards their home, all crammed with food.
This consists partly of fry of fish and their ova, especially of the
Coal-fish, and partly of small crustaceans, which the sea-currents
drive backwards and forwards, in enormous masses, both close
to shore and out at sea. Among these are the little copepod
Calanus finmarchicus, transparent as water; this food they share
with the Rudolphi’s Rorqual (or ‘“‘ Coal-fish Whale,” Balenoptera
borealis), a species of whale of medium size, of which in some
seasons (as in 1885), nearly 800 head are captured on the coast of
Norway. Another crustacean occurring in large quantities, 1s
the “ Kril” (Euphausia ineymis), a small species of Thysanopod,
half-an-inch long, which also forms the chief food of the Blue
Whale (Balenoptera sibbaldiu), the largest of all now living (or
probably of formerly existing) creatures, when this sea giant
stands in under the Norwegian coast in the summer months.
And the Blue Whale in turn must yield its life to the explosive
harpoon-shell, whilst it lies on the surface of the water and
gorges on these small crustaceans, which form its only food during
its sojourn with us, and of which even up to ten barrels* have
been found in the capacious stomach of some of the examples
that have been captured.

The Kittiwake builds its nest upon the narrow shelves on the
steep cliff wall, where they hang like swallows’ nests out over
the breakers. In the course of years they become constantly
larger, since they are extended and added to each year, so that
at last they may reach a height of several feet. They are a
tangled mass of straw (bents) and sea-weed, copiously saturated
by the droppings of the birds and their young ; sometimes they
are situated so low down, that the spray of the surf reaches them,
but such things affect neither the young nor the sitting birds.

In the winter the mountain remains deserted. The birds,
which are often seen in whole clouds at sea, or under the land,
engaged in fishing, never then sit on the Klubbe. In March they
suddenly return, and occupy it all at once; at the end of August,
when all the young have taken to the water, they once more
leave it.

* A Norwegian 7zde (= barrel) holds about 30 gallons (= 3.83 bushels).—
Transl.

ee et

POR ee,

YOUNG KITTIWAKES.

9

Besides the Kittiwake, there breed on Sverholtklubben only a
few stray Razorbills and Guillemots (Alca torda and Lomvia trotle),
some Tysties (Uvia grylle), and the two kinds of Cormorant (Phala-
crocovax cavbo and Ph. graculus), but all these together are quite lost
sight of among the countless gulls.

High over these swarms of birds there commonly soar in
majestic calm, a pair of Sea-eagles (Haliaétus albicilla), which have
placed their inaccessible nest up under the summit of the moun-
tain. But the constant sight of the mighty pirate, who by
merely making a swing with his wings can at any time possess
himself of one of the young Kittiwakes from the open nests, has
accustomed the denizens of the cliff to the danger, and they take
little notice of him. Should, on the contrary, a Gyr-falcon (Hiero-
falco gyrfalco) on its piratical expedition come too near the colony,
the effect is quite different ; the exasperation of the inhabitants
is aroused, and as it is not a member of the community, it is
pursued with loud screams, so long as it remains in sight.

Before we take leave of the bird-rocks and their residents,
we will record an event of historic interest, which is connected
with one of the most easterly of the bird-rocks of Finmarken,
namely, Horné by Vardé. In the year 1848, there was shot here
by a man still living, Herr L. Brodtkorb, a bird, which though
it was not preserved for posterity, was yet so fully described
by the gunner as to be immediately recognized by naturalists,
and the remembrance of it also has been so faithfully preserved,
that any mistake is hardly conceivable. Then, indeed, in all
probability, was shot the last existing example of that remarkable
bird, the Garefowl, or Great Auk (Alca impennis). As the author
has already elsewhere* referred more fully to this occurrence,
and as the Garefowl never seems to have been a constant inhabi-
tant of the coast of Norway, we will not here detain ourselves
longer with its history.

We must briefly mention what species of birds may be con-
sidered as the most characteristic in the belt of islands which
gird the coast of Norway.

* Mitth. d. Ornith. Vereines in Wien, 1884.

1O

Along the whole coast-line there occurs hardly a holm,
or an island large enough to provide sufficient food to keep a
couple of sheep during the summer, without its being also in-
habited by a pair of Oyster-catchers (Hamatopus ostralegus),
some Ringed Plovers (A¢gialitis hiaticula), often also by the
Turnstone (Strepsilas interpres), and some small Gulls and Terns
(Sterna macrura). If the island is bigger, and more covered with
heather or grass, there may nearly always be found there, in
addition, one or two pairs of Eider Duck, and a sprinkling of the
larger species of Gull, especially Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus).

As we approach the larger bird-islands or egg-holms the
bird-hosts are recognizable from a long distance.

Upon these egg-holms is the home of the Eider. Every-
where among the heather or in the scrub, the ducks are sitting
close upon the five large yellowish-gray eggs, surrounded by the
fluffy wall of down; it is well-known that they often place their
nests quite close to the houses of the human inhabitants,
even under the door-steps, or the floor of the kitchen. The
Eider is often the islanders’ only domestic fowl; through
the whole summer the broods lie scattered along the shore-edge,
and the little brown-black ducklings dive gallantly into the surf
after mussels, and other small creatures, and they also eagerly
search for the fish-offal that is thrown away. Complete harmony
prevails mutually between the families; if the young get separ-
ated from their mother, they attach themselves to the nearest
duck that they meet with, and one sees not unfrequently a duck
in this way at the head of a row of over twenty small ducklings,
which follow her like a string of beads on the surface of the
water.

The Greater Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), the Grey-Lag
Goose (Ansey cinereus), and the Arctic or Richardson’s Skua
(Stevcovarius crepidatus) are also among the most frequent of the
inhabitants of the egg-holm. And upon the largest of them,
where the protection is strict, it not unfrequently happens that
quite strange species settle themselves down to nest. Thus on
B—— in Lofoten there have bred for many years a pair of
Barnacle Geese (Bernicla leucopsis), a bird which nests nowhere
else in the country.

Il

The nearest relation of the last-named species is the Brent
(Bernicla brenta). This goose never nests on the continent of
Europe, although the young birds now and then spend the
summer with us, and it is a well-known visitor to the country
at migration times.

In the spring Brent Geese push in under the Naze (Lindesnes)
on a fixed day, towards the end of May, in large skeins, and
more follow on the succeeding days; in rows as straight as a line
they sweep compactly over the surface of the sea along the whole
coast until they reach the outermost north-westerly skerries.
Then the crowds sweep further afield, so as to fetch their nesting-
places in Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya; and the sealers and
Arctic travellers who have stood upon the northern point of
Spitzbergen have seen them wandering yet further over the snowy
sea, seeking still more northerly archipelagoes, which as yet no
human being has trodden.

Tromso offers a good opportunity for observing bird-life as
it exists on the islands which fringe the Arctic coast, being one
of the lower and more thickly inhabited of them, situated nearly
in the 7oth deg., N. Lat., and bearing Finmarken’s capital city
of the same name. In that town there exists a veritable Arctic
Museum, whose industrious scientists have for fifteen years pub-
lished their ‘‘Troms6é Museum’s Annual,” the most northerly
scientific journal in the world.

This pretty little island, which extends like a green knoll
within a circle of snow-clad mountains, is thickly over-grown
with birch-wood, alternating with tracts of marsh and some
cultivated fields. Although the former richly varied animal_
life has of late years somewhat decreased on account of the in-
creased area under cultivation, still a stroll along the gardens,*
with which nearly every house outside the town is provided, and
in the surrounding birch-groves, will in a short time make us
acquainted with several very characteristic birds, which have
their place of summer resort here.

* Where in particular the stately Heraclewm panaces with its unusual luxuriance
excites the traveller’s admiration.

12

Everywhere is to be heard the wild cry of the Fieldfare
(Turdus pilavis),—that bird so characteristic of our sub-alpine
regions,—which nests everywhere, particularly in the coast dis-
tricts, in large colonies ; nor is it anywhere wanting in the thick
birch woods, which as a rule clothe the sides of all the moun-
tains in the Arctic district. Here are found nest after nest, more
or less close to each other, but never more than one on each tree ;
where trees are wanting, or where the birds are undisturbed, they
take up their quarters upon the verandahs of the houses, and
during the nesting season, are somewhat obtrusive with their
shrieking and noise.

In each colony of this kind there are generally found estab-
lished one or two pairs of Redwings (Turdus iliacus), which are
even more obtrusive than their larger cousins. Other small birds
also commonly settle down in the midst of the colony, because
they well know, that the stout-hearted thrushes will keep all sorts
of robbers away, or, at any rate, give them timely notice of the
danger.

In every meadow we commonly find a pair of Blue-headed
Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla flava). This delicately made bird, with
its lemon-coloured belly, a near relation of our common White
Wagtail (M. alba) inhabits in Norway almost exclusively the
higher-lying regions, such as the Sater (= mountain dairy) in-
closures in the southern high Fjelds, or grassy-bottomed spots in
the arctic parts.

In this northern race the hood of the male is dark blue-gray
or nearly gray-black (M. cinereocapilla, Savi), whilst in the typical
form in the lowlands of mid-Europe, it is ash-coloured with
greenish intermixture.

From the thickets in the gardens, and from the willow bushes
in the moister places, may be heard the best songster of the
arctic district, the Blue-throated Warbler (Cyanecula suecica),
delivering its weak but harmonious song ; certain notes in which
remind one of the sound of a distant bell, and the peasants call
it therefore in several places the Little-bell bird.. In Norway it
is entirely Alpine in its habitat, and never breeds in the low-
lands.

Another remarkable songster, which inhabits the willow

33)

thickets of Tromso in very large numbers, is the Sedge-warbler*
(Acrocephalus phragmutis), the only species of its genus, which
occurs in Norway. And with us it inhabits almost exclusively
the regions north of the arctic circle, whilst everywhere else in
Europe it is common in all lowland reed beds.

Like most of the genuine migrants of the order Passeres, the
small birds above alluded to, do not reach these their northern
resting-places across the southern parts of Norway, but by the
eastern route, across Russia and the Baltic provinces. One con-
sequence of this is, that several species which appear frequently
in Finmarken, such as the Red-throated Pipit (A uthus cervinus), and
the Siberian Willow-Warbler (Phylloscopus borealis), are either not
met with at all during migration in the southern parts of the
country, or appear there only occasionally and accidentally.

Particularly numerous in the birch-woods of Tromsé are the
Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla), and the Mealy Redpoll
(Linota linavia); and the males, ubiquitous and irrepressible, are to
be heard in the early summer practising their best arts of song,
although the long, harsh call-note of the first mentioned,—the
only one which it is capable of producing,—hardly deserves the
name of song.

But of all the numerous bird-voices, which meet us as we
ramble on a spring day through the still leafless groves of Tromso,
there is none more surprising, than the guffaw of the male Willow
Grouse (Lagopus albus). This vivacious bird, newly arrayed in its
handsomest spring plumage, with the dark chestnut-brown head
and neck contrasting sharply with the remainder of the still snow-
white dress, never omits to croak, when it settles, after being
flushed. Its voice is curious, and indescribable, and is a charac-
teristic feature seldom lacking in the life of our mountain birch-
woods.

A fortnight later the hen lays her eggs among the heather
or under a birch bush, often close by the frequented roads of the
island, or even within the garden or enclosure of the villas. But
she lies untouched and safe; her brown-speckled back matches

* It may be worth noting, to avoid any chance of confusion, that the
Norwegian name is Rorsanger, which means literally Reed-warbler; a species
which does not occur so far to the north as even the south of Norway.— 7razs/.

14

the surroundings so perfectly that it is almost impossible to be
certain at the distance of a few paces, whether one still knows
exactly where she is.

Upon the open bogs there breed a motley collection of
arctic or sub-alpine birds, mingled with coast forms and more
southern species. Here occur the Red-throated Pipit (Anthus
cervinus), the Common Snipe (Gallinago celestis), the Great Snipe
(G. major), Temminck’s Stint (Tvinga temminchi), Curlew and
Whimbrel, several Sandpipers (Totanus glareola, T. canescens, and
T. calidvis), the Red-necked Phalarope* (Phalavopus hyperboreus),
and various ‘‘ broad-billed” or ‘‘gray” Ducks (Anas, Mavreca,
Dajfila, &c.).

And among the common European small-bird fauna, we shall
also find various true songsters resident here, as the Redstart
(Ruticilla phenicurus), Hedge-sparrow (Accentor modularis), the two
Fly-catchers, the White Wagtail, and many others. The White
Wagtail follows mankind right up to the most northerly point of
the land inhabited—the fishing-station on Gjesver by North
Cape.

Hither come, as more or less accidental visitants, the
Starling, the Swallow, the Sky-Lark, the Woodcock, the Land-
rail, and also the Quail, besides several others.

In the winter the birch woods of Tromsé remain nearly
deserted, and at that time, besides the Willow Grouse, one
meets with only an occasional Scandinavian- or Northern-Marsh
Tit (Parus borealis), and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendro-
copus minor), some Yellowhammers, Mealy Redpolls, Bullfinches,
a solitary Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), some Golden-crested
Wrens (Regulus cristatus), and also rarely—the Longtailed Tit
(Acredula caudata), this last being of course the type-race with the
entirely white heads the only form which occurs in Norway.
(The young in nestling plumage have, however, dark eye-stripes. )

Lastly, we must mention among the stationary species, the
three well-known relations—the Magpie, the Hooded Crow, and
the Raven. All these go up as far to the north as men and
food are to be found, and the Magpie builds its large nest on the
faggot-piles by the houses even on Gjzsveer, directly by the

* Norwegian, Svpmmesneppe=Swimming Sandpiper.

15

North Cape. The Raven is everywhere along the coast de-
servedly regarded as a harmful bird, because out of wanton
mischief it pecks in such a way at the fish hung up to dry,
that the wooden frame on which they hang falls down, and the
fish le on the ground and are spoilt. Up here it is common
everywhere, and one may often in the autumn meet with flocks
of twenty to fifty head collected together.

ME

HE steamer has passed the point of North Cape,
and anchored in Hornvigen, a little bight on the
Eastern side of the mountain, to allow the tourists
the opportunity of ascending the northernmost
outpost of Europe against the Arctic Ocean. We

geo ashore, wade through plants, as high as a man, of the

vigorous Mulgedium alpinum, Archangelica officinalis (‘* Kvanne ” =-

Angelica), and an extremely luxuriant form of Scurvy-Grass

(Cochlearia officinalis), which reaches above our knees ; we clamber

up along the narrow cleft of the mountain in order to reach

the plateau proper, which forms the termination of the Cape,
before it topples over sheer down into the Arctic Ocean. We
post ourselves on the slope facing the Arctic Ocean ; the time is
between one and two at night; the sun’s red disk stands high
above the horizon; the sea lies burnished like a looking-glass,
and one seems to be able to see right up to the North Pole; but
we cannot linger long—the ship is waiting for us down below.
Still, we get just enough time to observe that even this
desolate plateau has bird inhabitants. Besides the ubiquitous

Wheatear—which is not wanting anywhere in our country, from

the naked rocks of the coast and up on the mountains to the

snow-line—we here come across a pair of Ringed Plovers

(Af gialitis hiaticula), which run away, crying anxiously, among

the small stones which cover the plateau like a floor; and, if

we are lucky, we may discover the four down-covered young,
which, like tiny grayish-brown lumps of down, lie flat among
the gravel, where they remain motionless so long as the danger

lasts.
Should we have time for a longer excursion, we may,—in the

a7

warm hollows, that indent the slopes of North Cape towards the
south,—find a couple of well-known species of birds, which
attend us in all parts of the land. One of these is the Cuckoo,
which in these regions entrusts its eggs to the Pipits and the
Wheatear; the other is the Willow- Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus),
which, in the highest willow thicket that even here manages to
sustain life, executes its somewhat tedious song as indefati-
gably as it does in the beech-woods of Central Europe. Its nest,
as round as a ball, and which in these storm-vexed parts is large
and fluffy, is lined with a handful of the white winter-feathers of
Willow Grouse. Its relation, the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus rufus),
on the contrary, hardly goes further north than Saltdalen, only a
little way beyond the Arctic circle.

We quit the plateau again, and go slowly down thonen the
steep cleft in the mountain, where the path winds among loose
stones and snow-fields. From high up the precipice are heard
the melancholy notes of a solitary bird, which sound almost
like the cry of a young bird separated from its mother. That
is the Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus), which sings to his mate,
whilst she is sitting on her brown-speckled eggs under a tussock
of grass up on the mountain, or is engaged in rearing her young.

The most emphatically Arctic representative in the group of
small birds, is the Snow Bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis). On the
precipice of North Cape, and on the stacks furthest out to sea,
upon the plateaux in the interior, and upon the archipelagoes
of the Arctic Ocean, everywhere one finds scattered pairs of
these birds established, whose simple summer plumage, composed
of pure black and pure white, harmonises so remarkably with
the ground that they have chosen to inhabit. From one of
the dark boulders, alternating with the snow-drifts which the
short summer is unable to thaw, or from the highest point of
such a snow-field, the male during the nesting season sings his
pretty and variable song, sounding quite cheerful in the dreary
surroundings; then he flies down among the stones, and comes
back shortly with his beak full of insects, especially of the large
Cranefly (Tipula), to feed his sitting mate or the young under
the slab of stone.

We have again reached the foot of the Cape, where our

2

18

friend, the Conchologist, has seized the opportunity to hunt out
from under the stones and among the tussocks of flowering Silene
acaulis, Cevastium alpinum, Rhodiola, and Viscaria alpina, a some-
what varied Fauna of Insects and Land-Molluscs,* which this
soil, only free from snow for three short months in the year, is yet
able to produce.

And by the edge of the sea, among the large stones, we are
greeted at our departure by a pair of Rock-Pipits (Anthus
obscurvus), the only species of its family (which includes the
Wagtails), which passes the winter with us.

We leave North Cape behind us and find ourselves in
Porsanger Fjord, the first of the large Fjords of the Arctic
Ocean, which cuts inwards to a depth of eighteen geographical
miles into the mainland of Finmarken. The shores of all these
Fjords resemble each other, and the same characteristics repeat
themselves more or less in them all. The mountains here are
lower, most frequently naked and rounded; the coast is often level
and flat, andas arule clothed with vegetation; either with ling,
alternating with willow scrub and tracts of swamp, or where
there are permanent inhabitants, interspersed with small green
plots of meadow.

But on these heather-clad and boggy shores, and in the
bottoms of the valleys, which in nearly every place are clothed
with vigorous birch-woods and the most luxuriant growth of
grass, there are spots where the naturalist will find a bird and
insect fauna so rich and peculiar that it can be exceeded in
few other places in the country.

Such a place is S—— T——. The island is only a Nor-
wegian square mile in extent,t and quite low; its surface,
rubbed smooth in the glacial epoch, and very slightly undulated,
is treeless, but covered with a thick layer of peat, overgrown
with short plants and heather, among which, here and there
gleams the reflection of water.

* Such as Conatus fulvus, Vitrina angelice, Arion subfuscus,and Alea arctica.

+ About 74 English miles. — 7vans/.

tg

Besides the large Coal-fish fishery, which takes place here
in the summer, the island has economically speaking, two glories.
If one lands here on a beautiful spring-like day in June, almost
the entire surface will be white with the large corolle of the
cloud-berry (Rubus chamemorus).* And when autumn comes,
these millions of plants will bear their large yellowish-red berries,
which can hardly anywhere else reach a more luxuriant develop-
ment than in favourable years they do here.

The second glory of the island is its supply of eggs and
down. This island is the nesting-place of one of the largest
colonies of Eider Ducks in the country; and as soon as the
ducks have settled under the small tussocks of ling, or between
the crevices in the layers of peat, the valuable down is stripped
(as a rule only once) from each nest; and when the ‘“‘down-har-
vest,” is complete, the proceeds fill an entire room up to a man’s
height. As the island belongs to the jurisdiction of the chief
magistratet of Finmarken, the lessee, who is its only inhabi-
tant, must deliver annually two caskst of cloud-berries and 48
kilograms § of thoroughly-cleaned down, out of the produce.

The island is therefore strictly watched during the breeding-
season, for there are many poachers among the more vagrant
fishermen and Laplanders, and no one jis allowed to set foot on
it before the young Eiders have taken to the sea.

Numberless gulls, belonging both to the black-backed (Larus
mavinus and L. fuscus), and to the blue-backed species (L. argen-
tatus and L. canus), nest in colonies all over the island, each
species commonly occupying a space to itself, in which none of
the others occur. Hard by there breed a considerable number
of Grey-lag Geese (Anser cinereus), but the two remaining
species of Wild Geese (the Bean Goose, A. segetum, and the
Lesser White-fronted Goose, A. evythvopus), belong to the inland
parts of the country. These gulls and geese supply the tenant
with many thousands of eggs annually.

Among all these swarms of birds there breed numerous other
species, which enjoy the advantage of the quiet which prevails

*It is impossible for anyone unacquainted with Norway to understand the
extreme appreciation in which these berries are there held.— 77ams/.

+ Amtmand. { Tonder, see foot-note, p. 7. § 3 qrs. 21 lbs. 134 oz.

20

on the island ; and though no raptorial bird nests here, yet many
of the gulls are veritable birds of prey, and sundry of the newly-
hatched Eider Ducklings are snapped up, on their way from the
nest to the sea, by the voracious Greater Black-backed Gulls
(Lavus mavinus), and disappear in a twinkling in their capacious
gullet. Even the Cloud-berries are devoured with avidity both
by gulls and by others of the feathered inhabitants of the
island.

The breeding season is over; it is in the month of July, and
we set out upon our ramble over the island. Here and there on
the small peat hillocks one hears the melancholy call-note of the
Lapland Bunting (Calcarius lapponicus), and the male in his bright
coloured summer plumage, with the broad reddish-brown collar
and the yellow beak, regards attentively and without the least
shyness, the intruder who sets foot in his domain. From the
more swampy places sounds incessantly the song of the Pipits,
when the male mounts a certain distance into the air, and sinks
again on to a tussock or stone. Of the Pipits, the Red-throated
species of the eastern arctic regions (Anthus cervinus) 1s, upon
this island, nearly as common as the Meadow-pipit; and as
it flies, the difference between it and the latter species is quickly
seen; it appears larger, and has a longer and sharper call-note.
The two species are commonly found intermingled in the same
locality ; the nests and eggs show no constant difference, though
the eggs of A. cervinus are generally furnished with spiral lines,
which as a rule are wanting in those of the other.

Where the surface is bare, and the ground stony or lichen-
covered, one generally finds a pair of Shore Larks (Ofocorys
alpestris), established ; this is likewise a Siberian species, which in
comparatively recent times has immigrated from the East, and
is now included among the more common of the small birds of
Finmarken. Even before the snow has yet entirely melted, the
hen is sitting on her eggs, in the nest lined with yellowish-
white willow down; and the young, which are covered with an
unusually soft and fluffy plumage, must often find themselves in
a snow storm or sleet squall, which makes the ground perfectly
white round the nest. During the time of incubation the male
executes his insignificant song, whilst he, like a true Lark, flies

21

round in circles for a long time, so high up in the air, that he
sometimes is lost to sight.

If we approach the small pools of water, which occur here and
there in the heathery spots, or upon the more grassy places, we
shall soon pull up near a pair of small waders, which are fairly
common here, and whose life-history and habits are well worth
our attention.

Already, before we go ashore, we have noticed a wisp of
small Sandpipers, which unlike all their relations, do not keep on
land, but swim about near the shore, diving with their little head
and slender beak, and constantly bringing up from beneath
the surface some crustacean or some other lower form of life
which is invisible to us. This is the Red-necked Phalarope
(Phalaropus hyperboreus), which with the slender form of body of
the Sandpiper, has acquired as close a covering of feathers as a
duck, and for whom the water is the more proper element. Often
they may be found in flocks on the sea far from land, rocking
upon the surface in the strongest swell, like small specks of foam.
But in the small tarns up in the interior of the country, between
the leaves of Comarum, Menyanthes and Hippuris, we may be able
to find their nest, or meet with the four delicately-formed brown-
ish yellow young in down, being conducted by one of the parents
among the water plants.

This one of the parents is, as is well known to the majority
of my readers, always the male. With the utmost indifference
to danger, he runs, anxiously screaming, directly in front of our
feet, to divert our attention from the eggs or the small young.
The females, on the contrary, which are a little larger, and
purer coloured, keep themselves to themselves during the nest-
ing season, and generally form the little flocks which we have
seen floating about on the small pools of water, or in the sea
close to shore, far removed from the burden of family life. Here
the plainly-coloured male is the weaker sex, which must wholly
and entirely undertake the hatching of the eggs and the bringing
up of the young. This trait is by no means peculiar to this
species, although hardly in any other case to so great an extent
as the present, where it also takes expression in the colour of
the male. It is more or less conspicuous with most of our arctic

22

waders of the Stint and Sandpiper families. Thus it is almost
always the male which sits, and leads the young brood, in Tvinga
striata (the Purple Sandpiper, Norwegian ‘“ Fjzrepist ” = ‘‘ Ebb-
piper”) and T. temmincht, as well as in the Greenshank (Totanus
canescens), the Wood Sandpiper (T. glareola),* and others; and if
both parents are present, the male is always the bolder, the
female more cautious, and also in better condition, than her
mate.

In company with Phalavopus there commonly live a few pairs
of Temminck’s Stint (Tvinga temmincki). This northern species,
hardly larger than a sparrow, is numerous in heather-covered
localities in the arctic parts of Norway, and here generally nests
in small colonies on low-lying tracts overgrown with willows
and Empetrum, not far from the shore, sometimes even in the
middle of the small plots of meadow by the Laplanders’ huts, if
only there are small pools of water in the neighbourhood where
they can search for food. At these regular feeding-places they
put in an appearance several times a day during the nesting
season to look for food.

During the whole time of laying, the male of this little sand-
piper performs a peculiar play, consisting of flying exercises,
combined with song, all to amuse his mate during the first
period of their wedded life. With quivering wings he mounts,
almost like a lark, singing and twittering, up in the air. Here
he flies about, in a circle, at an inconsiderable height, during a
trilling passage of the song, and sinks at last with raised wings,
still singing, down upon a stone or on the top of a bush. The
common Dunlin (Tvinga alpina) also has a similar but far less
elaborate play, and it is also known in the Knot (Tviga canutus).

There still remains to be mentioned, among the island’s
small waders, the smallest of them all, Tvinga minuta. This
Little Stint of the far north, it is true, appears during the
migration periods, sometimes even in large numbers, alike in the
south of Norway and on the other coasts of Western Europe,
but about its summer haunts, and its breeding history, there

* The Norwegian name of this species is Gronbenet Sneppe—Green-
legged Sandpiper, while that of the Greenshank is Glutsneppe=a corruption of
Glottis-Sandpiper.— 7rans/.

25)

were, even up to within the last few years, only published a couple
of short notes made by Middendorff during forty years on the
Taimyr peninsula in North Siberia (about 74° N. lat.).*

Here in Norway it seems, however, on the whole to nest only
occasionally. It generally elects to take up its abode in com-
panies of from one to some few pairs, in the middle of colonies
of its nearest relation, 7. temminckt, and its behaviour during
the nesting season is almost exactly like theirs. It seeks its
food at the same feeding-places by the swamps on the coast ;
and by its extremely anxious demeanour, when one approaches
its nest, it discloses as artlessly as its companions, where the four
prettily-pencilled eggs, so highly valued by oologists, he amongst
the heather. The nest is even more skilfully constructed than
its relation’s, and is lined at the bottom with a thick layer of
fine grass bents, almost like that of a pipit.

During the nesting season this bird also performs a play, which
is executed much in the same way as with the preceding species ;
but besides that, the male, and sometimes the female, utters a
delicate twittering song from the ground in proximity to the
nest. Here also it is the male on whom the burden of rearing
the young is essentially incumbent.

We pause at length by the largest of the pools of water,
which glitter among the cloudberry flowers and the layers of
turf. Numberless gulls make their toilet here, as they prefer for
this purpose the fresh water to the sea. Pair after pair of the
Red-throated Diver (Colymbus septentrionalis) lie scattered over the
water, or exercise their two tiny brownish-black young in diving
in the small pools of water in the neighbouring swamp. On this
island, where they are protected, this species, otherwise so httle
gregarious during the breeding season, has joined together into
small colonies, a thing which has hardly ever been observed
elsewhere: and when the author, in 1872, visited the island for
the first time, there were at least thirty pairs nesting in its
different tarns. All these pools, whose water is black and mixed

* In June, 1872, on this very island, the author met with several pairs of this
species settled, and under circumstances which plainly showed that they bred here.
But in 1875, as is known, Seebohm and Harvie Brown first found both eggs and

young in the Gebet Tundra, near the mouth of the Petchora. In 1880 the author
found several nests in two different localities on the shores of Porsanger Fjord.

24

up with mud and guano, are entirely destitute of fish; but a
peculiar crustacean, belonging to the group of Phyllopods
(Polyartemia forcipata), occurs here in large numbers.

Its nearest relation, the Black-throated Diver (C. arcticus),
occurs but rarely on the low islands on the coast, but nests by
preference in the inland lakes in the interior of the country;
and the Great Northern Diver (C. glacialis), the largest of the
three, whereof young, non-breeding individuals are met with in
summer on our southern coasts, perhaps never nests in Norway.

It is also worth mentioning that the western-arctic Colymbus
adamst, one of the largest web-footed birds of the North Atlantic,
and whose proper habitat must be said to be but little known,
has of late years been brought into our museums several times,
especially in autumn, from the coasts of Norway; in most in-
stances from the west and south coasts of the country, though
some have also been met with on the coast of Finmarken.

Before we quite leave T and the northern coast regions
of the country, it will perhaps be of interest to point out which
species of arctic waders and web-footed birds are never found
nesting within the boundaries of the country, but appear in large
numbers during the periods of migration, or at other times of the
year.

It is well known, in what large flocks many of the arctic
species of Tvinga annually appear in the autumn on the west coast
of Europe. By the middle of August there arrive upon our coasts
the young of the year of Tvinga canutus (the Knot, sometimes
called by us the Iceland Sandpiper, or in Jeederen* ‘“‘ Grel”’), and
of Tvinga subarquata (the Curlew Sandpiper, or in Norwegian, the
Curved-beaked Stint), in company with Sanderlings (Calidvs
avenavia) and others. But whence come these hosts in thousands
and thousands, which gradually disperse themselves over the
coasts of the North Sea lands? We only know that they come
from the north, and the exceedingly few cases, in which the eggs

* Jaederen is nearly the S.W. most corner of Norway, the district between
Stavanger and Egersund.—77amns/.

25

or young of these species have been found with certainty in the
extreme north, lead to the conclusion that their chief nesting
places lie nearer to the Pole than any lands, which civilised man
has hitherto explored. Their real habitat no human being per-
haps has yet trod.

We have already mentioned the Little Stint (Tvinga minuta),
which is somewhat less polar in its habits than the preceding
species, and nests moreover so far towards the south as along
the Arctic Ocean coast of Asia and Europe. The same remark
applies to the Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica), which in Jederen,
—where it occurs like the above named, during the migration
seasons,—has obtained the unmerited name of ‘‘Spanish Plover.”
This species nests, like the Little Stint, in the Tundra districts
of North Siberia, and eastwards to the mouth of the Petchora.
The Grey Phalarope (Phalavopus fulicarius) does not nest so far to
the south as Norway.

Among the web-footed birds, besides the Brent Goose (Bernicla
brenta), already alluded to above, we are also visited by Steller’s
Duck (Hentconetta stellevi) the most prettily marked of all our
ducks. This species, the male of which bears an extraordinarily
variegated plumage with a silky gloss on it, never breeds west of
the Murman coast,* but visits Varanger Fjord every winter in
large numbers. In thesummer also an occasional flock of young
birds ranges about in the Fjords of Finmarken. The King Eider
(Somateria spectabilis) moves likewise in the winter in flocks to the
Finmarken coasts from its still more northerly breeding stations.

A couple of other north-easterly forms, which never nest in
Norway, are the Bewick’s Swan (Norwegian, Dwarf Swan, Cygnus
bewickt), and the Smew (Norwegian, Dwarf Fish-Duck, Mergus
albellus), and this applies probably also to the White-fronted
Goose (Ansey albifrons). As mentioned above however, it is
proved, that the Barnacle Goose (Bernicla leucopsis) may, in excep-
tional cases, remain to breed.

We may also mention, as non-breeding members of the gull
family,—besides the white-winged gulls previously named (Larus
glaucus, L. leucopterus and Pagophila eburnea),—the ‘‘ Broad-Tailed”’

* Russian Lapland; the N.W. corner of Russia, between Norway and the
White Sea.— 7rans/.

26

(—Pomatorhine) Skua (Stercorarius pomatorhinus), and the Fulmar
Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis); and of the auk family, the Spitzbergen
Guillemot (Lomvia bruennicht),and the Little Auk (Mergulus).

All these species, whose breeding haunts lie further east or
further north than the confines of Norway, visit our coast more
or less commonly, chiefly in the winter, but a few of them also in
summer. It is indeed a truly remarkable trait in these species
belonging to the far north (especially the waders), which as breed-
ing birds belong to the most northerly coast-lines of Europe, or
even still more northerly regions, that many individuals often spend
the summer on the most southerly coasts of Norway or still further
to the south. All these consist of one- or two-year-old indi-
viduals, who are waiting until they attain to breeding age.
Thus, there ‘“‘summer” annually on the southern extremity of
Norway (Listerland and Jederen) flocks or stray individuals
of Tringa canutus and Tr. subarquata, of the Sanderling (Calidvis),
and of the Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica), and also of the
Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis), and others; whilst
the tully adult individuals of these species are hatching out
their young in the extreme north; also of Tvinga minuta, Tr.
temmincki, of the rusty-red Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica),
and of the Spotted Redshank (Totanus fuscus), which each as
breeding birds with us, belong only to Finmarken, while the
young birds are to be met with in the south, all through the
summer. It is as if the desire to revisit the regions in which
they first saw the light, does not awake in earnest before they
themselves breed.

Inside of T island lie a multitude of large and small holms
or islands, some low, others precipitous and mountainous, and as
a rule only inhabited by a pair of miserable sheep which are
lodged here in the short summer time. But on most of these
desolate-looking holms it is worth while for the ornitho-
logist to go ashore. If the ground is heather-covered and
swampy, there will never be lacking some nesting pairs of
different species of Tvinga ; and on the drier places, where the

27

brownish carpet of Crowberry plants* forms comparatively large
levels, interrupted by low hillocks, there will always be found
established a pair of Richardson’s Skuas (Stercorarius crepidatus),
which are very skilful in hiding their dark-brown eggs or the
sooty-black young, numbering one or two, among the ling. Al-
though a near relation of the gulls, and thus like them having
to seek their living on the sea, they by no means disdain any-
thing as food, which the dry land can offer them, from Lemmings,
Shrew-mice, and young birds, down to insects and Crow-berries,
which they pick up among the ling.

If we approach the Skuas’ nesting place, we see the two
parents, the one white-, the other black-bellied, or both white-
bellied, or both black, flying restlessly and silently about the
spot; now and then they throw themselves to the ground, as if
struck lame, and remain lying there with extended or half-flapping
wings, like birds winged by a shot, in order if possible to divert
attention from their eggs or young. If we come quite close to
the nest they become bolder, and at last swoop down so near
us; that the tip of their wing sometimes touches one’s head so
forcibly that our hat flies off, and our ears tingle.

But the Skua pursues its proper craft, when it throws itself
in among a flock of fishing Terns, selects an individual amongst
them which has just caught a young Coal-fish of an inch long, or
a Sand-Launce (Ammodytes lancea), and pursues it with stoops as
swift as lightning until it is compelled to let go its prey, which is
picked up from the surface of the water, or even while still in the
alr.

Although in the down all are black, the young of these
variously-coloured parents are, later on, likewise varied. From
similar parents (both dark-, or both white- bellied) spring similar
young ones; from variously-coloured parents spring a mixed
brood, some white-bellied, some black-bellied. In the arctic parts
of Norway the white-bellied individuals are the more common, on
the southern coasts of the country the black.

Others of the lower holms may be entirely occupied by
colonies of the Arctic Tern (Sterna macruva); on one such holm

* Empetrum nigrum.

5

25

by L——, in Laxe Fjord, thousands of pairs thus nest together,
and several thousand of the small and prettily pencilled eggs,
which are considered as the most savoury of all the sea birds’
eggs, can generally be taken annually by the proprietor, but in
certain years the whole colony absent themselves.

A phenomenon in arctic nature may yet be mentioned, which
we often meet with, whilst we row about in the inner parts of the
large fjords of Finmarken. From time to time we may hear far
away an odd noise from the level of the sea, which sounds almost
like a distant thunder clap; it is the sound produced when flocks
of thousands of Eider Ducks or Velvet Scoters (Gdemia fusca)
suddenly, as if impelled by a common inspiration, rise from the
surface, fly a short distance, and settle again. These are the
non-breeding individuals, which pass the summer here in a social
life devoid of cares, and perform these flying and diving exercises
as a kind of game.

We leave T—— and the other holms in the fjord, and con-
tinue our investigations in one of the luxuriant basins which
debouch upon both sides of the bottom of the fjord.* Though
each of these harbours a very rich and varied fauna, we select
one among them, M—-—,, a tributary of a large river, whose broad
valley bottom, situated in about 70° N. Lat., is clothed with the
most luxuriant birch-woods, and whose many windings, ere it
falls into the mighty head-river, form a series of flat, wooded
promontories or peninsulas, here and there filled with small
swamps and willow thickets. Besides these favourable localities
being inhabited by their proper arctic forms among small birds
and waders, several of our more southern species have also been
induced to send their furthest advanced guards up hither, where

they find in the sheltered sides of the valley of M , the
northernmost limit for their extension with us (and in the whole
world).

We have not wandered far from the house by the river’s mouth

* Such are the estuaries of Bors-Elv, Staburs-Elv, and Lax-Elv in Porsanger-
fjord, Laxefjordbund in Laxefjord, Tana-Elv and its many tributaries inside Tana-
fjord, also Nyborg and the Pasvig-Elv in Syd-Varanger.

29

where we lodge with the friendly Kven (=Finlander), Johan
Kolstrém, before we pause at the sound of the characteristic call-
note of the Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), one of the prettiest
birds of our fauna; and in the (still in the beginning of July)
leafless birch-trees we quickly discover its loosely built nest,
composed of dry birch-twigs. Its life-history and habits are
remarkable. Undismayed in the presence of danger, the Pine
Grosbeak sits on its eggs so zealously, that it sometimes allows
itself to be touched by hand before leaving the nest; it then
flutters some few paces away, and gazes without shyness upon
the strange disturber.

It is not an easy thing to give fixed rules for the variation of
colour, which appears in the different ages and sexes both in this
species, and in its relations the Crossbills (genus Lowxia). In the
flocks of Pine Grossbeaks, which make their appearance in the
autumn on the lowlands in southern Norway, some of the males are
crimson of various shades, othersare yellowish; and some greenish-
yellow males may be so absolutely like the females, which are
always so coloured, that no external difference can be detected
between them. But in some years one meets with hardly any
but red males, in others mainly yellow specimens, and it seems
almost as if the young males’ first plumage was in some years
formed with the majority red, and in others yellow.

The commonest species of Tit in these high-lying birch-woods,
is the Lapland Tit (Pavus cinctus), which in its life-history and
habits approaches the Northern Marsh Tit (Pavrus borealis), and like
it hollows out its nesting-hole in the dry birch stumps. It is the
‘« Talgoxe ”’* of the inhabitants of Finmarken, and comes in the
winter into the houses, in order to peck at the fat in the joints
of reindeer meat hanging outside the store-houses.

Before we have proceeded far along the bank of the
river, where the birch wood grows luxuriantly on the warm
slopes, our attention will be arrested by the voice of an un-
known songster, which, with short intervals, repeats his stanza
with incredible perseverance. This song, which may be heard
by the hour at a time, and at all hours of the day or night, but

* Lit. Tallow-ox.— Zvans/.

30

especially in the warm sunshine, belongs to the Siberian Willow-
Wren (Phylloscopus borealis). Originally known in Europe through
a solitary individual, shot during the autumnal migration at
Heligoland, in 1854, it was later on found several times in
North Russia, but was unknown to the west of Archangel until
the year 1876, when the author met with it resident at Staburnes,
in Porsanger. Its proper home is the whole of North Siberia,
where its distribution extends to the east as far as Bering’s
Straits and Alaska, consequently through about 180° of longi-
tude. In Finmarken it is a recent immigrant, and its migration

therefore does not pass southwards along the Baltic provinces,.

like that of our other arctic small birds, but it migrates across the
large river basins of Siberia in order to reach down to the
Pacific coast, China and India, where its chief winter home is. If
one could suppose that there dwelt a yearning for its native land
in this little bird’s breast, then an individual which picked its
food, at the New Year, in the bamboo thickets by the Chinese
villages or at Malacca, might recollect how it, some months
previously, tried its wings for the first time in the birch-covered
slopes close by North Cape, and there it would return when the
spring calls it. ’

The song is monotonous, as with all the Willow-Wrens, and
consists only of a single note, zi-zi-zi, which is repeated quickly a
dozen times over; then follows a short stop, which in the height
of the singing time lasts half a minute, after which follows the
same strain anew, and so ad infinitum. ‘This fervid song, unlike
that of all other European songbirds, acts electrically upon the
ornithologist, who knows that the life-history of the performer
during the nesting season has hitherto been unknown to natural-
ists.

Until quite late years only one nest of this species had been
found, namely, by Mr. Seebohm at Egasca (by the Jenisej), in
July, 1877. That nest contained eggs; in July, 1885, the author
found at M—— three nests, all with six or seven young.

These latter nests were placed at the foot of a tree stem, or
by a tree root, where the forest was thickest, and were well
concealed by the flowering Cornus suecica, Veronica longifolia,
geraniums, and Melica nutans. As with the other Willow-Wrens

31

they were round as a ball, provided with a roof, and loosely
composed of fine grass bents, but without feathers or hair.*

The Siberian Willow-Wren with us, generaliy inhabits
ground which is especially favourable for the development of
the summer plague of Finmarken—the mosquitoes. From these
they procure their food, and several times while the author
has stood still to discover the secrets of the habits of this char-
acteristic species by watching, it has through the mosquitoes
been rendered almost an impossibility.

In the birch woods of M we meet, however, not only with
species of purely arctic origin. Several genuine birds of passage,
belonging to the common European fauna, also have here their
furthest boundary towards the north, and the well-known notes
of the Garden Warbler and the Blackcap (Sylvia hortensis and S.
atvicapilla), the Redstart (Auticilla phenicurus), the two Fly-
catchers (Muscicapa atricapilla and M. grisola), the Tree Pipit
(Anthus trivialts), the Song Thrush (Turdus musicus), the Hedge
Sparrow (Accentoy modulavis), and several others, meet us fre-
quently. They are the same forms here as in the south; the
song, however, is not quite the same; it has a somewhat muffled
sound, and even a few of the strains are partly different and
unknown. And this allows of an easy explanation. Up here,
where the areas are so large and the total number of spots habit-
able by these species few and far between, individuals frequently
have no opportunity of hearing another of his own kind; each
male sings only for his own mate, and competition can never arise,
since it but seldom hears one of the same species as itself. Each
one evolves his song independently of any influence from others,
and they thus, therefore, acquire their individual impress.

Of other acquaintances from the lowlands, which meet us in
the Finmarken valley bottoms, we may mention the House
Martin (Chelidon urbica). In these desolate regions, this bird also
knows how to adapt itself to its surroundings. As in Finmarken
they only rarely find nesting-places on the few and low houses,
they therefore breed in colonies, several hundred pairs together, on

* One of these broods is to be seen exhibited at our Zoological Museum (in
Christiania), all the young ones sitting by the side of each other on a branch, the
only young of that species that are as yet known to be exhibited.

32

the steep precipitous mountain walls, which here and there fall
sheer down to the valley bottom; here they glue up their in-
accessible nests under small projections, exactly like several of
the tropical species of swallow, which normally occupy cliff
regions, and never come near human habitations.

The Sand Martin also (Cottle riparia) goes so far up to the
north, as it finds serviceable nesting-places in the sand escarp-
ments; and wanting these, it pierces its horizontal passages
into the turf roofs of the houses. The Swallow (Hivundo rustica)
on the contrary, stops further to the south, and only one or two
heedless individuals show themselves in Finmarken.

In addition, we may mention as purely accidental stragglers,
only quite by chance found here in the far north, the Swift
(Cypselus apus),* the Hoopoe (Upupa efops), the Turtle Dove (Turtur
communis), the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), the Coot (Fulica atra),
various waders and some other birds.

We have hinted above how the fauna in our part of the world
shows a tendency to extend itself westwards, and that Finmarken
has thus by degrees become inhabited by several species of
purely eastern-arctic origin. It is worth remarking therefore,
that there are still found various species of small birds and waders
which inhabit the country to the east of Finmarken, (the Kola
peninsula and north Russia), but which are not known to have
yet passed the frontiers of Norway. Such are two species of
Bunting (Emberiza rusticat and E. pusilla), the Yellow Wagtail
with the lemon-coloured head (Motacilla citreola), a Pipit (Anthus
gustavi), and the Terek Sandpiper (Terehia terek); of the Rosy
Bullfinch (Carpodacus erythvinus) only a solitary individual blown
out of his course, has hitherto been found near Christiania. The
White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), which nests in north
Russia, is on the contrary frequently found during the autumnal

* It may be worth recording that in September, 1888, I saw three pairs of
Swifts, which were apparently breeding on a high cliff forming the bank of the
river Pasvig, half-a-day’s journey eastwards of Lake Inari, in Finland, within
a dozen miles or so of both the Russian and Norwegian frontiers, in approximately
68° 53‘N. Lat., and 25° 53° E. Long.— 77ans/.

+ I shot two examples on the Finnish bank of the river Tana,—that is,
immediately on the Norwegian frontier,—at a place called Bildam (about midway
between Polmak and Utsjok), on September 18th, 1885.— Z7avs/.

ne

33

and winter migration in southern Norway, but has as yet never
been discovered nesting with us.

Finally it may be mentioned, that in the summer of 1876,
Fisheries-Inspector Landmark found resident by Bérs-Elv (in
Porsanger) a Warbler, which probably was the Asiatic Acrocephalus
dumetorum ; it occurs now near Archangel, and has thus perhaps
already reached our territory.

It remains to point out which species of birds are stationary
here, and are capable of enduring the long winter with the
rigorous weather and the short day-light, which prevails in these
northern latitudes.

Of such species,—the hardiest outposts of the bird-world on
the European continent,—we may name, among the Tits the Lap-
land Tit and the Northern Marsh-Tit ; among the Finch tribe the
Snow Bunting, the Mealy Redpoll (Lznota linaria), and the Tree-
sparrow; also, the Water-Ouzel; and of the Crow tribe the
Raven, the Magpie, the Hooded Crow, and the Siberian aye:
lastly, among the Woodpeckers the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker,
and the Three-toed Woodpecker.

Of gallinaceous birds, besides the two Ryper (Ptarmigan and
Willow Grouse), there is also the Capercaillie, but the Black
Grouse is wanting in the further districts of Finmarken, and the
Hazel Grouse does not pass the middle of Nordland (Ranen).

Among the waders scarcely any other species are normally
stationary than the Purple Sandpiper (Tvinga striata); of rap-
torial birds the White-tailed Eagle, and the Osprey, the Gyrfal-
con, and a couple of Owls (the Snowy Owl and the Hawk Owl,
Surma ulula), together with one or two individuals of our two
common species of hawk, viz.: the Sparrow-Hawk. and Gos-
Hawk; lastly, among the web-footed birds most of the Gulls,
the Eider-duck, the two species of Cormorant, as well as the
species of the Auk-tribe which have been already mentioned.

Some of these winter-residents among the small birds we
shall touch on very briefly. In most of the fir woods, which in
the larger Fjords cover the shores or the sides of the valleys,
we shall frequently stumble upon a flock of Siberian Jays (Peri-
soveus infaustus), which with extended wings float about from tree

3

34

to tree, and at one moment hunt for insects among the lower
branches overgrown with beard-lichen,* and at another moment
for berries on the ground. Everything eatable is good, and as
variable as its diet is the voice, which at one moment has clear
flute-like notes, and at the next is harsh, like that of its relation,
the Common Jay; a curious bird, which in its life-history and
habits nearly resembles a gigantic rusty-red Tit-mouse, equally
inquisitive, but with something mysterious about it, and vanishing
as it came, suddenly and noiselessly.

A well-known winter-visitor in our lowlands, also has here, in
the northern-most conifer forests, its home and its nesting place.
This is the Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus); vagabond and undecided
in its habits as it always is, it may in certain years be found
resident at various points in the interior of Finmarken, whilst in
other years it is entirely invisible. For its nesting places it
selects the most desolate tracts, especially where willow scrub
occurs interspersed in the conifer forests; but the whole summer
through it is silent and difficult to discover, which explains why
an acquaintance with its breeding habits has been so compara-
tively lately acquired. They do not wait long after the young
are fledged, but retire in flocks towards the south, only a few
remaining behind to spend the winter in their native land.

As an immigrant from the south of late years, must be men-
tioned the Common Sparrow, which has now reached up as far as
Oxfjord, to the south of Hammerfest, whilst it otherwise seems
to be absent from Finmarken. Its nearest relation, the Tree-
Sparrow (Passer montanus), which strikingly resembles the Common
Sparrow, has on the contrary a wider extension, and is, where it
settles itself, generally confounded with it. In 1885 I found it
even established in the imposing walls, which protect the most
northern fortress in the world.t

The Dipper also (Cinclus aquaticus) occurs by all the small
swift-running rivers which are not frozen up in the winter,
right up to the Arctic Ocean. The northern race of this bird
is scarcely distinguishable by any constant marks from those
which inhabit the water-shed of central Germany, or the moun-
tain brooks of the Pyrenees; the extent of the brown belt

* Usnea barbata. + Viz. : Vard6hus.— 7razs/.

3)

between the white breast-spot and the black belly-colour, a
character on which naturalists have laid stress, has proved to
vary to a wide extent within each single locality.

Several species here have apparently become the subjects of
climatic variation. Let ustake examples of the Northern Marsh-
Tit, of the Magpie, or of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker,
already mentioned, and it will be seen that they have all altered
in a certain direction; they have become whiter than the
individuals from more southern localities. The Magpie occurs
thus in a fine race, where the white colour of the wing feathers
extends very nearly to their tips, so as to approach the White-
winged Magpie (Pica leucoptera), from East Siberia; in Parus borealis
the back is light gray, and the abdomen snow-white, whilst the
same species down by Christiania has a darker back, and a dirty-
coloured abdomen ; the little Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendvo-
copus minov) has a white back without the transverse bars, and
nearly unspotted outer tail-feathers, answering perfectly to the east
arctic D. pipra, whilst coexistent with them, certain individuals are
dark coloured, like the normal southern stock. And the Three-toed
Woodpecker has here become of a robust form, with a winter
plumage of fluffy and particularly purely-coloured feathers, which
are decidedly lighter than in individuals further south.

These phenomena are by no means devoid of physiological in-
terest. It would appear that a living being is to a certain degree
like a photographer’s plate, which receives the impression from
its surroundings. The month-long daylight in the summer and
the long winter, here strive, generation after generation, to
fashion individuals whiter, and have, over the whole of Norway,
already given the two Ryper, the Hare, the ‘‘ Snow-mouse,” * the
Stoat, and the Arctic Fox, their white winter pelt, exactly as the
intense sun of the tropics and the variegated splendour of colour
in the vegetation there, produce the parti-coloured and metallic-
glistening birds and insects, or the yellow sand of the desert is
reflected in the hairy coat of the Fennec Fox} and the Jerboa,
or in the feathers of the Sand Grouse (Pteroclide), and the
Desert Lark.t

* The so-called AZustela nivalis = M. vulearis.— Transl.

+ Canis cerdo. Gm, t Ammonanes deserti.

Tih

ROM the confined valley bottoms with their luxuriant
growth of forest, we mount up along the ‘river-
rapids; the slopes form in many places long
terraces, one after another, remains of the dam-
mings up of the water while ice-bound, monoton-

ous in their appearance, and sterile in their nature. The forest

becomes rapidly thinner, and is succeeded by scrub, and we
shortly stand up on the wide plateau, which with inconsiderable
interruptions of mountains or valleys, stretches over large por-
tions of the interior of Finmarken. Upon these large moors,
upon ‘‘ Lapland” proper, the solitary Laplanders drive their
herds of Reindeer from tract to tract, to seek the places where the

Reindeers’ chief food and staff of life—the Reindeer Moss (Cladonia

vangifeyina)—grows most luxuriantly; but of fixed residents there

are found in these regions but few.

Innumerable lakes, most frequently surrounded by extensive
stretches of bog, which are covered with dwarf-birch or willow-
scrub, le spread out upon the plateau, and are the true summer
home of many of our northern species of ducks and waders.

By many of the small brooks, which purl out into the large
rivers or the lakes, we shall thus find established the pretty
Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythvopus), which hatches out
its five grayish-yellow young under a willow-bush in the marsh
adjoining one of the lakes. This small arctic species, hardly larger
than a domestic duck, is widely distributed in the interior of Fin-
marken, but 1s nowhere really numerous. It seems to prefer
streams with muddy banks, and thick, clay-stained water,

oH

especially if they are surrounded by thick scrub; here the Laps
hunt them with dogs in the moulting season, and bring home the
whole family, including the young which are as yet unable to fly,
to the houses in the valley, where they soon become tame, and in
the autumn have to lay down their lives like other domestic fowls.

Here and there we may also meet with a pair or two of
Whoopers (Cygnus musicus), which build their gigantic nest,
resembling an enormous ant-hill, and compounded of earth, twigs
and moss, upon the small islands in the rivers or larger lakes, far
from human habitations. Of other birds of the Duck family may
be mentioned the Long-tailed Duck (Harelda glacialis), which is
frequent in the small lakes in the interior of Finmarken: whilst
the duck incubates her dark olive-green eggs, which are buried
deep in a wreath of her brownish-black down, the drake in his
variegated dress with the long swallow-tail, remains close by,
and keeps a sharp look out on the trout-fry. The Goldeneye
(Clangula glaucion) forms in several places a source of revenue for
the Laplanders, who hang up for them large nest-boxes in the
trees by the river banks, and in these the duck lays her eggs,
which. with the down are later on taken away. Naturally it lays
its eggs in a hollow tree, a remarkable nesting-place for a duck ;
but the way in which the newly-hatched young are slipped down
to the ground by the parents in order to reach the water, is as yet
scarcely explained, since this transport takes place by preference
without witnesses.

If we wander about for some time on the plateaux themselves,
where large tracts are covered with stones, lichens, and an
extremely sparse vegetable growth, mainly consisting of Diapensia,
Saxifrages, some graminaceous plants, and species of Carex, we
shall soon find out how poor, considering all things, animal life is
here. Hour after hour may elapse, during which we meet with
scarcely a single bird. And yet certain species have their real
home even in this desolate region. Thus here nests the Dotterel
(Eudvomias morimellus), and it is a cheering sight to find one of the
parents, as a rule the male, leading about his small, velvety,
down-covered young, pied gray and black, among the lichens and
the rough grass knolls. With us this species is completely alpine
in its habits, and seldom nests below the highest tree line.

38

A peculiar bird, half raptorial, half web-footed, also inhabits
the mountain plateaux, especially where they alternate with
marshes, and draws attention to itself by its odd habits. This
is the Buffon’s Skua (Stercorarius parasiticus), which unlike its
relative in the belt of islands girding the coast, only makes its
appearance in a single plumage with’ white abdomen, a black-
bellied phase being unknown. With a curious cry it approaches
the hunter, flaps about him in large circles, now and again
remains motionless in the air, exactly like a Kestrel, and at last
settles down upon a tussock to wait until the danger has passed
away. Its food is as varied as that of its relative, and especially
in the years in which the Lemmings undertake their mass
wanderings, it lives largely upon them and various species of
Arvicola, whilst it ordinarily persecutes young birds, and in times
of scarcity contents itself with berries and insects.

Though animal life under ordinary circumstances seems to be
sparse upon these extensive wastes, it is otherwise in the years
in which, as above mentioned, the Lemming (Myodes lemmus)
multiplies beyond its normal number, and undertakes its emigra-
tions. This renowned little rodent, with its handsome yellow
and black pied skin and its hasty temper, lives as a rule a
little-noticed life among the tussocks and the willow-scrub upon
the high mountains, and as an essentially nocturnal animal one
sees under ordinary circumstances little or nothing of it.

But in certain years, under conditions which are inexplicable
to us, there comes to pass their multiplication in an inordinate
degree, for their prolificness during these years is almost
incredible. Litter follows litter the whole summer through ;
young ones, which first saw the light in the spring, are already
breeding in the autumn, and the old individuals often produce a
new litter of young inthe same nest, which the half-grown young
of the preceding litter have not yet left. Gradually, as they
over-run their native place, they set out upon their wanderings
over the sides of the mountain; and in these great ‘*‘ Lemming-
years”’ they are therefore common everywhere, alike upon the
mountains and in the valleys, and by degrees reach far down
upon the lowlands, where they are otherwise entirely unknown.
They are now in motion at all hours of the day, they cross rivers

39

and lakes, bring forth young frequently on the way, are killed
during the course of the summer in thousands by men, dogs, cats
and all kinds of predaceous animals and birds, die in masses of an
epidemic, which always makes its appearance, where the con-
dition of a species of animal is disproportionately large, and by the
arrival of autumn the hosts are already considerably diminished
in number. In the course of the winter most of them die, and
in the second year after the beginning of the emigration, there is
seldom a living Lemming to be found remaining in the valley
bottom. Not one individual returns alive to the high Fjelds.

But it is not only this species which has a mass increase in
these years. Simultaneously other small rodents, especially
of the genus Avrvicola, increase beyond the normal number ;
thus in Finmarken the Gray-sided Field-Mouse (A. rufocanus),
upon the high Fjelds the Mountain Rat (A. ratticeps), in the
forest districts the Forest Lemming (Myodes schisticolor), and the
Bank Vole (A. glaveolus), or upon the lowlands the common A.
agrestis ; yes, even the Shrews, the Hares, and the Ryper are
wont to be more numerous in these years than in others.

Then come also all kinds of raptorial birds and carnivorous
animals, springing as it were from the ground, enticed to the
place by the profusion of food. The mountains swarm with
various hawks, especially Rough-legged Buzzards (Archibuteo
lagopus) and various species of owl; especially Short-eared Owls
(Asio brachyotus) and Snowy Owls; and Gyr-falcons (Hverofalco
gyrvfalco) now show themselves comparatively frequently. Among
the predaceous animals are Arctic Foxes, Stoats, and Weasels,
ubiquitous everywhere; and they all live almost exclusively on
the Lemmings. Even the fish are among their enemies; one
may, not unfrequently in such a year, come across a trout with
its belly distended by a Lemming, which the voracious fish has
swallowed, while it was essaying to cross a river or lake.

Even among the raptorial birds the prolificness of the year
leaves its traces. The Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca), which in-
habits all the mountain plateaux of the country right up to North
Cape (and Spitzbergen), but which in ordinary years is found
scattered and sparingly, is, during these breeding years, so
numerous as to be scarcely absent from any part of the mountain,

40

and at the same time so prolific that they have as many as ten
eggs in their nest.

The process of hatching of suchan unusual clutch for a raptorial
birdisabnormal. We stand by the side of such a nest, which lies
on the open mountain, generally in the neighbourhood of moist
ground. In the nest lie four half-grown young of the size of a
hazel grouse, with well developed wings, which in a fortnight’s
time will be ready to do service; in addition the nest contains
two young ones, which are considerably smaller, and still half
down-clad ; lastly three ditto, which are just hatched, and lie
half buried under their bigger brothers and sisters. Under these
nine young ones we shall finally find an egg, which is perhaps
only half incubated, or nearly ready to hatch. These many
stages among the young arise from the fact that an interval of
several days may often elapse between the laying of one or a pair
of eggs and the next ; so soon as the first young ones have burst
the egg shell, the parents are obliged to seek food for them, and
the incubation of the remaining eggs is thus given up, altogether
or in part, to the elder brothersand sisters. In the incubation of
the last egg at any rate the parents take hardly any part.

Whilst the hen is sitting, the somewhat smaller and nearly
snow-white old cock bird sits on guard in the vicinity of the nest,
and warns his mate by a strange shriek, if a hunter approaches ;
both then circle about him with their peculiar slow wing-strokes,
and swoop impetuously straight down upon his dog, which may
easily be wounded thereby. The hen however in general takes
the affair more calmly; she is more wary than the male, and
fatter, since she is always fed by him. Around the nest lies a
rich supply of Lemmings and Rype-chicks, whole or dismem-
bered, and always in larger quantities than the young are capable
of consuming.

This successive development of the young may be traced in
ordinary years also, in other raptorial birds as well, but is most
perceptible during these prolific years, since the clutch of eggs
is often, ¢.g., with the Rough-legged Buzzard, or with the Hawk-
Owl (Surnia funevea), increased beyond the normal number.

41

Our excursions on the moors are nearly concluded. We are
on the point of setting out on our return journey, tired of the
boggy hollows, the willow-scrubs, or the interminable tracts
covered with loose stones; but retaining the impression of a re-
markable, and in many respects grand, nature. A peculiarly harsh
bird-cry rings about us from a group of birch-trees, which grow
here and there on the flat lichen-covered terrace that forms the
last step before coming to the valley bottom. We soon see
that it proceeds from a pair of Great Grey Shrikes (Lanius
excubitor), who are apprehensive about their nest; this lies large
and exposed in the top of the biggest of the birches, well-lined
with white Rype feathers, which at a long distance can be
seen protruding from the side of the nest—an enticing sight for
an ornithologist. Here he will be able to obtain a contribution to-
wards the solution of a question which has often been propounded
—which race of this species of bird it is which inhabits arctic
Europe, whether it is the ‘‘single-spotted”’ form, whose wing only
has one large white spot by the root of the quill feathers (“«L.
majoy’’), or the typical one, which, besides this spot on the
primaries, has also a large white spot by the root of the second-
aries, and therefore may be called the ‘‘ Two-spotted.” Both
are found indiscriminately during the migration seasons and in
winter, in nearly all other parts of Europe, and several naturalists
have therefore believed that the single-spotted and somewhat
darker ‘‘ Lanius major”? was a really arctic species, which had its
home in northern Europe and northern Asia, where the typical
Lanius excubitoy would not be found.

Within five minutes both examples lie in our hand; but the
solution of the question is apparently just as far off as before.
For the fact is, the male proves to be a typical L. excubitor, the
female an equally strongly-marked ‘‘L. major,” and the young in
the nest are too small to afford any evidence.

We learn hence, however, this much, that both forms are
only varieties, which may occur indiscriminately in these
northern regions; but they are not good species, since they pair
with each other (which two distinct species normally never do).
The typical European form is unquestionably the two spotted
L. excubitoy ; but it has a strong tendency to variation in the dis-

42

tribution of the white colour ; these light and dark varieties are
often found paired with each other, and producing individuals
which partly resemble both parents, partly constitute inter-
mediate forms between them.

We have completed the tour which we had proposed to
ourselves. We have picked up some of the scattered features
of the life-history of a single group of animals in the arctic parts
of our country, as they occur to us among the numerous islands
girding the coast, on the birch-covered slopes in the sheltered
valleys, and upon the treeless expanses of the mountains. Our
porters stand ready, outside the little mountain hut, which for
several days has afforded us a roof over our heads, and we retire
again into the valley, where the first trace of civilisation begins
to show itself.

But we only leave these regions reluctantly, with their mar-
vellously attractive nature, thin pure air, and the free, uncon-
strained life. And as we stand on deck, and see the last
snow-covered peaks which defend the Land of the Midnight
Sun disappear under the horizon, and return again to “the
gilded misery” (as the enthusiastic Englishmen say when they
take leave of our mountains), a yearning draws us strongly
back towards those regions which are apparently so poor, but
which nevertheless yield to every lover of nature, memories
never-to-be-forgotten. :

APPENDIX

ACP PA ND ex.

A List of the Birds of Norway, arranged

fiules of the B.O.U.

The total number of Birds, hitherto found in Norway, is

The number of Breeding Species is :—

Regular (normal) Breeders ...

Rare Breeders ve
Uncertain Breeders ...

The number of Non-breeding Visitors, is :—

Annual (normal) Visitors
Rare Visitors ... is
“ Meteoric”’ Visitor ...
Accidental Visitors

Besides these there are 3 Hybrids.

A.—BREEDING

according to the
278
190
: 7
15
212
12
5 : 13
F 1
40
66
SPECIES.

1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species).

Family TURDIDA
Subfamily TURDINZ

Missel-Thrush. TYurdusviscivorus,Linn.
Song-Thrush. Zurdus musicus, Linn.

Redwing. Zurdus iliaeus, Linn.
Fieldfare. Zurdus pilaris, Linn.
Blackbird. Turdus merula, Linn.
Ring-Ouzel. Zurdus torquatus, Linn.
Wheatear. Saaicola enanthe, Linn.)
Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra,( Linn.)
Redstart. Ruticillaphenicurus(Linn.)

Red-spotted Bluethroat.
suecica, (Linn.)
Redbreast. rithacus rubecula, (Linn.)

Cyanecula

Subfamily SYLVIINZ

Whitethroat. Sylvia cinerea, Bechst.
Lesser Whitethroat. Sylvia curruca,
(Linn.)

Blackcap. Sylvia atricapilla, (Livn.)

Subfamily SYLVIINZ— continued

Garden Warbler. Sylvia hortensis,
Bechst.
Golderest. Regulus cristatus, Koch.

| Chiffchaff. Phylloscopus rufus, (Bechst.}
Willow- Warbler. Phylloscopustrochilus,

(Linn. )

| Siberian Willow-Warbler. Phy/loscopus

borealis, (Blasius.)

Icterine Warbler. Hypolais icterina,
(Vieill.)

Sedge-Warbler. Acrocephalus phrag-
mitis, (Bechst.)

Subfamily ACCENTORIN@

Hedge-sparrow. <Accentor modularis,
(Linn.)

Family CINCLID

Dipper. Cinclus aquaticus, Bechst.

lv

A.—BREEDING SPECIES.

if
Family PARI DA

White-headed Long-tailed Titmouse.
Acredula caudata, Linn.)

Great Titmouse. Parus major, Linn.

Continental Coal Titmouse. Parus ater,
Linn.

Marsh-Titmouse. Parus palustris, Linn.

Northern Marsh-Tit. Parus borealis,
De Selys.

Lapland Tit.

Blue Titmouse.

Crested Titmouse.
Linn.

Parus cinctus, Bodd.
Parus cerileus, Linn.
Parus cristatus,

Family SITTIDA&

Northern Nuthatch. Sitta europea,
Linn.

Family TROGLODYTIDAG
Troglodytes parvulus, Koch.

Wren.
Family MOTACILLIDA

White Wagtail. MWotacilla alba, Linn.
Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. MWotacilla
flava, Linn.

Meadow- Pipit. Anthus pratensis,
(Linn.)

Red-throated Pipit. Anthus cervinus,
(Pall.)

Anthus trivialis, Linn.)
Anthus obscurus, (Lath.)

Tree-Pipit.
Lock- Pipit.

Family LANIID

Great Grey Shrike.
Linn.

Red-backed Shrike.
Linn.

Lanius excubitor,

Lanius collurio,

Family AMPELIDA
Waxwing. Ampelis garrvulus, Linn.

Family MUSCICAPIDA

Spotted Flycatcher.
Linn.

Pied Flycatcher. Muscicapa atricapilla,
Linn.

Muscicapa grisola,

Family HIRUNDINIDA
Swallow. Hirundo rustica, Linn.
Martin. Chelidon urbica, (Linn. )
Sand-Martin. Cotile riparia, (Linn.)

Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species)—continued

Family CERTHIIDH
Tree-creeper. Certhia familiaris, Linn.

Family FRINGILLIDA

Goldfinch. Carduelis elegans, Steph.
Siskin. Chrysomitris spinus, Gould.
Greenfinch. Ligurinus chloris, Gould,
House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus,
(Linn.)
Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus, (Linn).
Chaffinch. Fringilla celebs, Linn.
Brambling. SF ringilla montifringilla.
Linn.
Linnet. Linota cannabina, (Linn.)
Mealy Redpoll. Zinota linaria, (Linn.)
Twite, Linota flavirostris,(Linn.) .

Subfamily Loxtinz
Northern Bullfinch. Pyrrhula major,

Brehm.

Pine Grosbeak. Pinicola enucleator,
(Linn.)

Parrot Crossbill. Lowxix pityopsittacus,
Bechst.
Crossbill. Lowia curvirostra, Linn.
Subfamily EMBERIZINZ
Corn-Bunting. Hmberiza miliaria,
Linn.

Yellow Hammer.’ Emberiza citrinella,
Linn.

Ortolan Bunting. Hmberiza hortulana,
Linn.

Reed-Bunting. Emberiza scheniclus,
Linon,

Lapland Bunting. Calcarius lapponicus,
(Linn.)

Snow-Bunting. Plectrophanes nivalis,
(Linn.)

Family STURNID
Starling. Stwrnus vulgaris, Linn.
Family CORVID&
Nutcracker. Nucifraga caryocatactes,
(Linn. )
Siberian Jay.
(Linn.)
Garrulus glandarius, (Linn.)

Perisoreus infaustus,

Jay.

Magpie. Pica rustica, (Scop.)
Jackdaw. Corvus monedula, Liun.

Hooded Crow. Corvus corniz, Linn.
Rook. Corvus frugilegus, Linn.
Raven. Corvus corax, Linn.

V

A.—_BREEDING SPECIES.

1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species)—continued

Family ALAUDID@
Sky-Lark. Alauda arvensis, Linn.
Wood-Lark. Alauda arborea, Linn.
Shore-Lark. Otocorys alpestris, (Linn.)

Family CYPSELIDA

Swift. Cypselus apus, (Linn.)

Fam. CAPRIMULGID&
Nightjar. Caprimulgus ewrope@us, Linn.

Family PICIDA
Subfamily Pictnz&

Great Black Woodpecker. Picus
martius, Linn.

Great Spotted Woodpecker. Dendro-
copus major, (Linn.)

White-backed Woodpecker. Dendvo-
copus leuconotus, Bechst.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Dend7o-
copus minor, (Linn.)

Three-toed Woodpecker. Picoides

tridactylus, (Linn.)

Green Woodpecker. Gecinus viridis,
(Linn.)

Grey-headed Green Woodpecker.
Gecinus canus, (Gmel.)

Subfamily lyNGINz
Wryneck. Jyna torquilla, Lion.

Family CUCULIDZ
Cuculus canorus, Linn.

Family ASIONIDA
Long-eared Owl. Asio otus, (Linn.)
Short-eared Owl. <Asio brachyotus,

( Forster.)
Tawny Owl. Syrnium aluco, (Linn.)
Ural Owl. Syrnium uralense, ( Pall.)
Lapp Owl. Syrnium lapponicum,
(Sparrm.)
Snowy Owl. Wyctea scandiaca, (Linn.)
European Hawk-Owl. Surnia ulula,

Cuckoo.

(Linn.)

Tengmalm’s Owl. Nyctala tengmalmi,
(Gmel.)

Eagle Owl. Budo ignavus, Newton.

Pygmy Owl. Glaucidium passerinum,
(Linn.)

Family FALCONIDA
Buzzard. Buteo vulgaris, Leach.
Rough-legged Buzzard. Archibuteo

lagopus, (Gmel.)

Family FALCONIDA—continued

Golden Eagle. Aguila chrysaétus,
(Linn.)

White-tailed Eagle. Haliaétus albicilla,
(Linn.)

Gos-Hawk. Astur palumbarius, (Linn. )

Sparrow-Hawk. <Accipiter nisus, Linn.)

Gyr Falcon. Hierofalco gyrfalco,(Linn. )

Peregrine Falcon. Fulco peregrinus,
Tunstall.

Hobby. alco subbuteo, Linn.

Merlin. alco esalon, Tunstall.
Kestrel. Tinnunculus alaudarius,
(Gmel.)

Osprey. Pandion haliaétus, (Linn.)

Family PELECANIDA

Cormorant.
(Linn.)
Shag. Phalacrocorax graculus, (Linn.)

Phalacrocorax carbo,

Family ARDEIDA

Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn.

Family ANATID

Gray Lag Goose. Anser cinereus, Meyer.
Bean-Goose. Anser segetum, (Gmel.)

Lesser White-fronted Goose. Anser
erythropus, (Linn.)

Whooper Swan. Cygnus musicus,
Bechst.

Common Sheldrake. Zadorna cornuta,
(Gmel.)

Wigeon. areca penelope, (Linn.)

Pintail. Dafila acuta, (Linn.)

Wild Duck. Anas boscas, Linn.
Common Teal. Querquedula crecca,

(Linn.)

Tufted Duck, Fuligula cristata,
(Leach.)

Seaup. Fuligula marila, (Linn.)

Goldeneve. Clangula qlaucion, (Linn.)
Long-tailed Duck, Hurelda glacialis,

(Linn.)
Eider Duck.

(Linn.)
Common Scoter. Gdemia nigra, (Linn.)
Velvet Scoter. Cidemia fusca, (Linn.)
Goosander. Mergus merganser, Linn.
Red-breasted Merganser. Wergus serra-

tor, Linn.

Somateria mollissima,

vi

A.— BREEDING SPECIES.

1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species)—continwed

Family COLUMBID As

Columba palumbus, Linn.
Columba cenas, Linn.

Ring- Dove.
Stock- Dove.

Family PHASIANID A

Partridge. Perdia cinerea, Lath.
Quail. Coturnix communis, Bonnat.

Family TETRAONIDA
Ptarmigan. Lagopus mutus, (Montin.)
Willow Grouse. Lagopus albus, (Gmel.)
Hazel Grouse. Bonasa betulina, (Scop.)
Black Grouse. Tetrao tetria, Linn.
Capercaillie. Zetrao urogallus, Linn.

Family RALLID A

Water-Rail. Rallus aquaticus, Linn.

Spotted Crake. Porzana maructta,
(Leach.)

Corn-Crake. Crex pratensis, Bechst.

Moor-hen. Gallinula chloropus, Linn.)

Family GRUIDA

Crane. Grus communis, Bechst.

Family CHARADRIIDA

Golden Plover. Charadrius pluvialis,
Linn.
Little Ringed Plover.
nica, (Gmel.)
Ringed Plover.
(Linn. )
Dotterel. Hudromias morinellus, (Linn.)
Lapwing. Vanellus vulgaris, Bechst.
Turnstone. Strepsilas interpres, Linn.)
Oyster-catcher. Hamatopus ostralegus,
Linn.

gialitis curo-

Qyialitis hiaticula,

Family SCOLOPACI DA

Red-necked Phalarope. Phalaropus
hyperboreus, (Linv.)

Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn.

Great Snipe. Gallinago major, (Gmel.)

Common Snipe. Gallinago celestis,
(Frenzel)

Jack Snipe.
(Linn.)

Broad-billed Sandpiper. Limicola platy-
rhyncha, (Yemm.)

Limnoeryptes gallinula,

Dunlin. Zvringa alpina, Linn.
Temminck’s Stint. Zringa temmincki,
Leis].

Family SCOLOPACID Ai —continued

Purple Sandpiper,
Linn.

Ruff. Machetes pugnazx, (Linn.)

Common Sandpiper. TZringoides hypo-
leweus (Tinn.)

Green Sandpiper. JZelodromas ochropus,
(Linn.)
Wood-Sandpiper.
(Gmel.)

Redshank. Zotanus calidvis. (Linn.)

Spotted Redshank. Totanus fuscus,
(Linn.)

Greenshank. Zotanus canescens, (Gmel.)

Bar-tailed Godwit. Limosa lapponica,
(Linn.)

Whimbrel.

Curlew.

Tringa striata,

Totanus yglareola,

Numenius pheopus, (Linn.)
Numenius arquata, (Linn.)

Family LARIDA
Subfamily STERNINZ
Aretic Tern. Sterna macrura, Naum.
Common Tern. Sterna fluviatilis.
Naum. .

Subfamily LARINZ
Kittiwake. Rissa tridactyla, (Linn.)
Herring-Gull. Larus argentatus, Gmel.
Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larus fus-

cus. Linn,
Common Gull. Larus canus, Linn.
Greater Black-backed Gull. Larvs
marinus, Linn.

Subfamily STERCORARIIN 2
Richardson’s Skua. Stercorarius crepi-
datus. (Gmel.)
Buffon’s Skua. Stercorarius parasiticus,
(Linn.)

Family COLYMBID &
Black-throated Diver. Colymbus arcti-

cus, Linn.
Red-throated Diver.
trionalis, Linn.

Family PODICIPIDA
Sclavonian Grebe. Fodiceps auritus,
(Linn.)

Family ALCiDA#

Razorbill. Alea torda, Linn.
Common Guillemot. JLomvia troile,
(Linn.)
Black Guillemot.
Puffin.

Colymbus septen-

Oria grylle, (Linn.)
Fratercula arctica, (Linn.)

vil

A.—BREEDING

SPECIES.

1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species)—continued.

Among these 190 species of ‘‘ Normal Breeders,” the particular breeding places of
three species are still unknown, namely, of Limnocryptes gallinula, Totanus fuscus,

and Jimosa lapponica.

with almost equal propriety have been classed under “ Rare breeders,
Emberiza mitiaria and Corvus frugilegus.

Two species breed in so limited numbers, that they might

”

namely,
Tt must also be noted, that, by

Motacilla flava is understood both the type race (which breeds extremely
sparingly in Norway) and the North European form J. viridis, Gmel,

2, Rare Breeders (7 Species).

Family TURDIDA
Subfamily SYLVIIN As
Wood-Warbler. Phylloscopus sibilatrix,

(Bechst.)
Family MOTACILLIDA
Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugubris,
Temm.
Family FALCONIDA
Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus, (Linn.)
Kite. Milvus ictinus, Savigny.

Family RALLIDA

Coot. Fulica atra, Linn.

Family CHARADRIID AS
Kentish Plover, (M£yialitis cantiana,
(Lath.)
Family SCOLOPACID As

Little Stint. Zringa minuta, Leis}.

3. Uncertain Breeders (15 Species).

Family TURDID A
Subfamily SYLVIIN 2

Grasshopper Warbler. Jocustella nevia,
(Bodd.)

Family FRINGILLIDA
Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, Pall.

Subfamily Loximn zs
White-winged Crossbill. Lowia leucop-
tera, Gmel.

Family ALCHEDINIDA
Kingfisher. Alcedo ispida, Linn.

Family UPUPID 4

Hoopoe. Upupa epops, Linn.

Family ANATIDAS
Barnacle Goose. Bernicla leucopsis,

(Bechst. )
Garganey. Querquedula circia, (Linn.)

Family ANATIDA—continued
Shoveller. Spatula clypeata, (Linn.)

Family COLUMBIDA

Rock-Dove. Columba livia, Bonat.
Turtle Dove. Turtur communis, Selby.

Family LARIDA
Subfamily LARIN A
Black-headed Gull. Zarus ridibundus,
Linn.

Family COLYMBIDA
Great Northern Diver. Colymbus glaci-
alis, Linn,

Family PODICIPI DA
Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps crista-
tus (Linn.)
Red-necked Grebe. Podiceps griseigena,
(Bodd.)
Little Grebe.
(Tunstall.)

Tachybaptes fluviatilis,

All these “ Uncertain Breeders ” make their appearance only sparingly, generally

during the autumnal migration, or in the winter; a few only in summer. Locustella
nevia has only been found in the country on two occasions, on the latter of which
it was probably breeding. Columba livia is probably now exterminated from the
fauna of the country.

4

Vili

B.—NON-BREEDING VISITORS.
1, Annual (Normal) Visitors (12 Species).

Family PELECANIDA
Gannet. Sula bassana, (Linn.)

Family ANATID

White-fronted Goose. Anser albifrons,
(Scop.)

Brent Goose. Bernicla brenta, ( Pall.)
Steller’s Duck. Heniconetta stelleri,
(Pall.)
King Eider. Somateria spectabilis,

(Linn.)

Family CHARADRIIDAi

Grey Plover. Squatarola helvetica,
(Linn.)

Family SCOLOPACIDA
Curlew Sandpiper. Zringa subarquata,
(Giild.)
Knot. TZringa canutus, Linn.
Sanderling. Calidris arenaria, (Linn.)

Family LARIDA&
Subfamily LARIN 2
Glaucous Gull. Zarwus glaucus, Fabr.

Family PROCELLARIIDAi
Fulmar. Hulmarus glacialis, (Linn. )

Family ALCIDA
Little Auk. Mergulus alle, (Linn.)

To these “ Annual Visitors’’ may be added the easterly form of Nucifraga

caryocatactes (forma macrorhynchus, Brehm).

Two of the above named species,

Somateria spectabilis, and Larus glaucus, should possibly be classed under the

“ Uncertain breeders.”

2. Rare Visitors (12 Species).

Family CICONITID
White Stork. Ciconia alba, Bechst.

Family ANATID@&
Pink-footed Goose. Anser brachy-
rhynchus, Baill.
Bewick’s Swan. Cygnus bewicki, Yarr.
Pochard, Fuligula ferina (Linn.)

Family SCOLOPACI DAS
Grey Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius,
(Linn.)

Family LARID Ai
Subfamily STERNINA

Black Tern. Hydrochelidon
(Linn).

nigra,

Subfamily LARINA
Ivory Gull. Pagophila eburnea, (Phipps)
Iceland Gull. Larus leucopterus, Faber.

Subfamily STERCORARIINZ
Pomatorhine Skua. Stercorarius poma-
torhinus, (Gould)

Family PROCELLARIID

Storm-Petrel. Procellaria pelagica,
Linn.

Manx Shearwater, Puffinus anglorum,
(Temm.)

Family ALCIDA

Briinnich’s Guillemot. Zomvia bruen-
nichi, (Sabine)

3. Meteorice Visitor (1 Species.)
Family PTEROCLID.

Pallas’s Sand-Grouse.

Syrrhaptes paradoxus, (Pall).

1x

B.—NON-BREEDING VISITORS.
4. Accidental Visitors (41 Species.)

Family TURDID Ai
Subfamily TURDINZ

Dusky Thrush. Zurdus fuscatus, Pall.

Black-throated Thrush. TZurdus atri-
gularis, Temm.

White’s Thrush. Zurdus varius, Pall.

Stonechat. Pratincola rubicola, (Linn.)

Black Redstart. Ruticilla titys, (Scop.)

Family MOTACILLIDA

Grey Wagtail. Motacilla melanope, Pall.
Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla raii, ( Bp.)
Richard’s Pipit. Anthus richardi, Vieill.

Family ORIOLIDA
Golden Oriole. Oviolus galbula, Linn.

Family FRINGILLIDAi

Subfamily LOXIIn az

Rosy Bullfinch. Carpodacus erythrinus,
(Pall.)

Family STURNIDA

Rose-coloured Pastor. Pastor
(Linn.)

TOSCUS,

Family CORVIDA

Carrion-Crow. Corvus corone, Linn,

Family ALAUDIDAI

Crested Lark. Aiauda cristata, Linn.

Family CORACIIDA

Roller. Caracias garrula, Linn.

Family FALCONIDA

Marsh- Harrier. Circus e@eruginosus,
(linn.)

Pallid Harrier. Circus smainsoni,
Smith.

*Greenland Falcon. Hierofalco islandus,
(Gmel.)

*TIceland Falcon. Hierofalco rusti-
colus, (Fabr.)

Family ARDEIDA

Purple Heron.
Little Bittern.
Bittern.

Ardea purpurea, Linn.
Ardetta minuta, (Linn.)
Botaurus stellaris, Linn.)

Family CICONILDA

Black Stork. Ciconia nigra, (Linn.)

Family PLATALEIDZ&

Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn.
Glossy Ibis. Plegadis falcinellus
(Linn.)

Family ANATIDA

Snow-Goose. Chen hyberboreus, ( Pall.)

Mute Swan. Cygnus olor, (Gmel.)

Ruddy Sheldrake. Zadorna casareca,
(Linn.)

Gadwall.
(Linn. )

Barrow’s Goldeneye. Clangulaislandica,
(Gmel.)

Mergus albetlus, Linn.

Chaulelasmus — streperus,

Family OTILD A
Little Bustard. Otis tetraa, Linn.

Family GLAREOLIDA&

Nordmann’s __ Pratincole. Glareola

melanoptera, Nordim.

Family SCOLOPACIDA

Avocet, Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn.

Family LARIDA
Subfamily STERNINZ

Sandwich Tern. Sterna cantiaca, Gmel.

Subfamily LARINA

Little Gull.
Sabine’s Gull.

Larus minutus, Pall.
Xema sabinii, (Sabdine)

* See next page.

Xx

B.—-NON-BREEDING VISITORS.

4, Accidental Visitors (41 Species)—continued.

i ue LARIDA Family COLYMBIDA
Subfamily STERCORARIIN , : SEN Ne
Gea Nie Fetienias siren eis EE bat eg Diver. Colymbus adamsi,

hactes, (Linn.) eo

Family PROCELLARIIDA Family PODICIPID

Leach’s Petrel. Procelleria leucorrhoa,| Kared Grebe. Podiceps nigricollis, C

Vieill. L. Brehm. i
Greater Shearwater. Puffinus major, eae

Faber.

Amongst the above enumerated forty-one “ Accidental Visitors,” are counted as
distinct species, the Greenland Falcon,* Hierofalco islandus, and the Iceland
Falcon, Hierofalco rusticolus,* whose title to distinct specifie rank is disputed.

C.—HYBRIDS.
Family TETRAONID

Tetrao tetrix 8 + Tetrao urogallus 2 (“ Rakkel-Hane,”’ male and female).
Lagopus albus 8 (2) + Tetrao tetrix 9 (2) ( Rype-Orre,” male and female).
Lagopus albus 8 + Tetrao urogallus 9 (‘‘Rype-Tiur,” male.)

* This nomenclature for the Gyrfalcon (or - falcons) is best explained by a
quotation from a former paper by Prof, Collett, entitled “‘Om 6 for Norges Fauna
nye Fugle, fundne in 1887-1889 ” (Christa. Vidensk, Sels, Forh., 1890, No. 4, p. 7)
—Transl,

F. islandus, or the white Greenland falcon, which is most frequently referred to
under Gmelin’s later name of F’. candicans, is known principally from Greenland,
and the majority of examples preserved in the Museums come from there. It nests
there in the more northern districts (north of the Arctic circle), but is tolerably
frequent in South Greenland during the periods of migration and in the winter.

In the southern parts of Greenland there also occurs, very numerously, the
real Iceland Falcon, which was named by Gmelin in 1788, /. islandus, under
which name it has hitherto been entered by most writers (including the present
author in Nyt. Mag. f. Naturv., B. 26, p. 329). This form, which is regarded by
most writers as a light climatic race of the North European / gyrfaleo, was as
long ago as 1780 named by Fabricius in his Fauna Groenlandica, F. rusticolus
(and its immature form, /. fuscus), after the species described in 1766 under that
name in Linneus’ Syst. Wat., ed. xii. Although Linnzus’ description of 7’.
rusticolus in the place quoted, may no doubt pass for the Iceland species, the prob-
ability is somewhat lessened that he really had it before him, because he states
as its habitat: “ea Swecia,’ a country, where the species can, et the present time,
scarcely be said with safety to occur. It is therefore safest to date the name F.
rusticolus for the Iceland species from Fabricius 1780, since that author unquestion-
ably had just that species before his eyes (and likewise the white Greenland
falcon for his description of &. islandus).

—

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