BIOLOGY UBBAftY 
 
BIRD LIFE 
 
 IN ARCTIC NORWAY 
 
 H popular Brochure 
 
 ROBERT .COLLETT 
 
 Foreign Member, Z.S. 
 Professor of Zoology in the University of Christiania 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 ALFRED HENEAGE COCKS, M.A., F.Z.S. 
 
 Xoufcon 
 R. H. PORTER 
 
 18, PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W 
 1894 
 
 [Price 2/- Net.] 
 

BIRD LIFE IN ARCTIC NORWAY. 
 
BIRD LIFE 
 
 IN ARCTIC NORWAY 
 
 H popular Brochure 
 
 ROBERT COLLETT 
 M 
 
 Foreign Member, Z.S. 
 
 Professor of Zoology in the University of Christiania 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 ALFRED HENEAGE COCKS, M.A., F.Z.S. 
 
 Xonfcon 
 R. H. PORTER 
 
 18, PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W. 
 1894 
 
BIOLOGY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 G 
 
 BIOLOGY LIBRARY 
 

 TO 
 
 PROFESSOR ALFRED NEWTON, 
 
 M.A., F.R.S., F.Z.S., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY IN 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 THE ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 IS 
 (BY PERMISSION) 
 
 DEDICATED. 
 
 D 
 
 886665 
 
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 TRANSLATOR. 
 
 " 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. 
 
 A. H. C. 
 
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 
 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 
 5. 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 "Saeter" folk (or mountain-dairy people), or to be 
 frequented by the numerous summer visitors, Tourists and 
 Sportsmen. 
 
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 Bodo, 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 lies 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 odovata, vav. 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 (Tringa and Totanus genera), which 
 leaving their winter quarters in Mediterranean lands and Africa, 
 
 * 100 Kilometers. 
 
XI 
 
 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. 
 
 II. The deep fjords of the Arctic Ocean and the adjacent 
 river basins in East Finmarken. 
 
 III. The interior plateaux of Finmarken, or Lapland proper. 
 
I. 
 
 T is a well-known fact, which moreover impresses 
 itself upon every naturalist, 4 ur 'i, n g m ' s passage north 
 along the coast of Norway, "that the" number of 
 species of birds decreases t;o sftf. 'e'xtraordirte'ry, extent 
 towards the north," while-' 'Oft '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," Rissa 
 tridactyla): 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 (Puffinus anglorum 
 and P. major), which certainly occur occasionally on the Nor- 
 
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), Brunnich's Guillemot 
 (Lomvia bmtnnichi)^ f.hte^-ti-ttl'e Auk (Mevgulus alle), the white- 
 winged Gulls (Lams glaitciis^ L,. leucoptems and Pagophila ebuvnea), 
 and others 1 .,' v \ t ' ' 
 
 The question occurs to us, where do these enormous hosts of 
 Little Auks, Brunnich'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 (Lavus glaucus) and King- Eiders (Somatena spectabilis), or a 
 solitary Ivory Gull (Pagophila ebuvnea) or Brunnich's Guillemot ; 
 but the Spitzbergen Tystie or Mandt's Guillemot (Uvia mandti) 
 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 
 
or lesser interval they extend in an irregular series from the out- 
 most extremities of the Lofotens Vaero and Rost, up along the 
 coast of Tromso to Fuglo and Loppen ; thence they make their 
 appearance to the eastward in Stappen near North Cape; in 
 Svaerholtklubben in Porsanger ; and in several crags on the 
 Varanger peninsula to Horno by Vardo ; 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 (Lomvia 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 a cold rain. 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. 
 
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 
 
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 
 its own egg. 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 ; 
 
 
 YOUNG PUFFIN. 
 
 this is Svaerholtklubben, situated on a projecting point a littfle to 
 the east of North Cape. The fact is that it is probably the 
 biggest in Norway, perhaps in the whole world. 
 
 Svaerholtklubben 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 
 
passengers, approaches the steep cliff wall, whose height is about 
 900 feet, and whose breadth is considerably more, but where 
 nevertheless, pretty well every available space of so much as 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 resounded 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 
 wd^known sportsman, and author of numerous interesting and valuable works. 
 TrdnsL 
 
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," Balanopteva 
 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, is 
 the "Kril" (Euphausia inermis), a small species of Thysanopod, 
 half-an-inch long, which also forms the chief food of the Blue 
 Whale (Balanoptera sibbaldii), 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 t 
 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 ot August, 
 when all the young have taken to the water, they once more 
 leave it. 
 
 * A Norwegian Ttynde (= barrel) holds about 30 gallons (= 3.83 bushels). 
 Transl. 
 
YOUNG KITTIWAKES. 
 
Besides the Kittiwake, there breed on Svaerholtklubben only a 
 few stray Razorbills and Guillemots (Alca torda and Lomvia troile], 
 some Tysties ( Una grylle), and the two kinds of Cormorant (Phala- 
 crocorax caybo and Ph. gyaculus], 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 (Haliaetus 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 (Hievo- 
 falco gyvfalco) 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, Homo by Vardo. 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. 
 
IO 
 
 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 (Hcematopus ostralegus), 
 some Ringed Plovers (JEgiaiitis hiaticula), often also by the 
 Turnstone (Stvepsilas interpres), and some small Gulls and Terns 
 (Sterna macmra). 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 avgentatus). 
 
 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 (Anser cinereus), and the Arctic or Richardson's Skua 
 (Steycorarius 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 (Bevnicla leucopsis), a bird which nests nowhere 
 else in the country. 
 
II 
 
 The nearest relation of the last-named species is the Brent 
 (Bernicla brent a). 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 (Lindesnaes) 
 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 yoth 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 "Tromso 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 Heracleum panacesw\\h its unusual luxuriance 
 excites the traveller's admiration. 
 
12 
 
 Everywhere is to be heard the wild cry of the Fieldfare 
 (Turdus pilaris), 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 (Tuvdus 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 Saeter (= 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 siiecica), 
 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 
 
13 
 
 thickets of Tromso in very large numbers, is the Sedge-warbler 1 
 (Acrocephalus phragmitis), 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 (Anthus cervimis), 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 Tromso 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. IransL 
 
H 
 
 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 
 cevvinus), the Common Snipe (Gallinago ccelestis), the Great Snipe 
 (G. major), Temminck's Stint (Tringa temmincki), Curlew and 
 Whimbrel, several Sandpipers (Totanus glareola, T. canescens, and 
 T. calidris), the Red-necked Phalarope* (Phalaropus hyperboreus), 
 and various Abroad-billed" or "gray" Ducks (Anas, Mareca, 
 Dafila, S*c.). 
 
 And among the common European small-bird fauna, we shall 
 also find various true songsters resident here, as the Redstart 
 (Ruticilla phcenicurus), Hedge-sparrow (Accentor modulans), 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 Gjaesvaer 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 Tromso remain nearly 
 deserted, and at that time, besides the Willow Grouse, one 
 meets with only an occasional Scandinavian- or Northern-Marsh 
 Tit (Pants borealis), and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dendro- 
 copits minor), some Yellowhammers, Mealy Redpolls, Bullfinches, 
 a solitary Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), some Golden-crested 
 Wrens (Regulus cnstatus), 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 Gjaesvaer, directly by the 
 
 * Norwegian, Sv<pmmesneppe= Swimming Sandpiper. 
 
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 lie 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. 
 
II. 
 
 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 
 go 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 
 (Cochharia 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 
 (JEgialitis 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 
 
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 through 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 
 
i8 
 
 friend, the Conchologist, has seized the opportunity to hunt out 
 from under the stones and among the tussocks of flowering Silent 
 acaulis, Cerastium alpimtm, Rhodiola, and Viscavia alpina, a some- 
 what varied Fauna of Insects and Land-Molluscs,' 1 ' 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 
 obscurus), 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, and as a rule 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, f 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 fichus, Vitrina angelicce, Arion stibfuscus, and Alcea arctica. 
 t About 7j English miles. Transl. 
 
19 
 
 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 corollae of the 
 cloud-berry (Rubus chamamorus).* 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 
 magistratef of Finmarken, the lessee, who is its only inhabi- 
 tant, must deliver annually two casks:}: 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 is allowed to set foot on 
 it before the young Eiders have taken to the sea. 
 
 Numberless gulls, belonging both to the black-backed (Larus 
 marinus 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 (Ansev cineveus], but the two remaining 
 species of Wild Geese (the Bean Goose, A. segettim, and the 
 Lesser White-fronted Goose, A. erythroptts), 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. Transl. 
 
 t Amtmand. \ Tender, see foot-note, p. 7. 3 qrs. 21 Ibs. 13^ 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 
 (Larus marinus), 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 cevvinus) is, 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 . cevvinus 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 (Otocovys 
 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 Tringa 
 striata (the Purple Sandpiper, Norwegian "Fjaerepist " = " Ebb- 
 piper ") and T. temmincki, as well as in the Greenshank (Tetanus 
 canescens), the Wood Sandpiper (T. glareold)* 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 Phalaropus there commonly live a few pairs 
 of Temminck's Stint (Tringa 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 (Tringa alpina) also has a similar but far less 
 elaborate play, and it is also known in the Knot (Tringa canutus). 
 
 There still remains to be mentioned, among the island's 
 small waders, the smallest of them all, Tringa 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 
 7/<?//zV-Sandpiper. Trans I. 
 
23 
 
 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, T. temmincki, 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, lie 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 little 
 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 18755 as ' s 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. 
 
2 4 
 
 up with mud and guano, are entirely destitute of fish ; but a 
 peculiar crustacean, belonging to the group of Phyllopods 
 (Polyartemia forcipala), 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 
 adamsi, 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 Tringa 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 Tringa canutus (the Knot, sometimes 
 called by us the Iceland Sandpiper, or in Jaederen* " Grel"), and 
 of Tringa subarquata (the Curlew Sandpiper, or in Norwegian, the 
 Curved-beaked Stint), in company with Sanderlings (Calidris 
 arenaria) 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 
 
 *Jsederen is nearly the S.W. most corner of Norway, the district between 
 Stavanger and Egersund. Transl. 
 
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 (Tringa 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 (Squatavola helvetica), which in Jaederen, 
 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 (Phalavoptis fulicarius) does not nest so far to 
 the south as Norway. 
 
 Among the web-footed birds, besides the Brent Goose (Bevnicla 
 brenta), already alluded to above, we are also visited by Steller's 
 Duck (Heniconetta 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 the summer 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 
 bewicki), and the Smew (Norwegian, Dwarf Fish-Duck, Mevgus 
 albellus), and this applies probably also to the White-fronted 
 Goose (Anser albifvons). As mentioned above however, it is 
 proved, that the Barnacle Goose (Bevnicla 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 (Lams 
 glaucus, L. leucoptevus and Pagophila eburnea), the "Broad-Tailed" 
 
 * Russian Lapland ; the N.W. corner of Russia, between Norway and the 
 White Sen. Trans!. 
 
26 
 
 (=Pomatorhine) Skua (Stercorarius pomatorhinus), and the Fulmar 
 Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis) ; and of the auk family, the Spitzbergen 
 Guillemot (Lomvia bruennichi), and the Little Auk (Merguhis). 
 
 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 Jaederen) flocks or stray individuals 
 of Tringa canntns and Tr. subarquata, of the Sanderling (Calidris), 
 and of the Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica), and also of the 
 Great Northern Diver (Colymbus glacialis), and others ; whilst 
 the fully adult individuals of these species are hatching out 
 their young in the extreme north ; also of Tringa minuta, Tr. 
 temmincki, of the rusty -red Bar-tailed God wit (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 Tringa ; 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 (Stercomrius cvepidatus), 
 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 
 air. 
 
 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 macrura) ; on one such holm 
 
 * Empetruni nigrum. 
 
28 
 
 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 (CEdemia fused) 
 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 Cyborg and the Pasvig-Elv in Syd-Varanger. 
 
2 9 
 
 where we lodge with the friendly Kvaen (=Finlander), Johan 
 Kolstrom, before we pause at the sound of the characteristic call- 
 note of the Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola emtcleator), 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 Loxia). 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, others are 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 (Parus cinctus), which in its life-history and 
 habits approaches the Northern Marsh Tit(Parus borealis),a.nd 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. Trans!. 
 
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 Staburnaes, 
 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 sttecica, Veronica longifolia, 
 geraniums, and Melica nutans. As with the other Willow- Wrens 
 
3 1 
 
 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, generally 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. 
 atricapilla), the Redstart (Ruticilla phcenicums), the two Fly- 
 catchers (Muscicapa atvicapilla and M. grisola), the Tree Pipit 
 (Anthus tyivialis),the Song Thrush (Turdus music us), the Hedge 
 Sparrow (Accentor modtilaris), 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 clift 
 regions, and never come near human habitations. 
 
 The Sand Martin also (Cotile 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 (Hirundo 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 (Upripa epops), 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 rustica\ and E. pusilla}, the Yellow Wagtail 
 with the lemon-coloured head (Motacilla citreola), a Pipit (Anthus 
 gustavi),. and the Terek Sandpiper (Terekia terek) ; of the Rosy 
 Bullfinch (Carpodacits evythrinus) only a solitary individual blown 
 out of his course, has hitherto been found near Christiania. The 
 White- winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptem), 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 
 6853'N. Lat., and 25 53' E. Long. Trans/. 
 
 t 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 l8th, 1885. Trans!. 
 
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 Bors-Elv (in 
 Porsanger) a Warbler, which probably was the Asiatic A crocephalus 
 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 (Linota linaria), and the Tree- 
 sparrow ; also, the Water-Ouzel ; and of the Crow tribe the 
 Raven, the Magpie, the Hooded Crow, and the Siberian Jay ; 
 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 (Tyinga 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, 
 Surnia 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- 
 soreus 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. f 
 
 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. t Viz. : Vardohus. Transl. 
 
35 
 
 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 us take 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 Pavus 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 (Dendro- 
 copus minor) 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 Foxf and the Jerboa, 
 or in the feathers of the Sand Grouse (Pteroclidce), and the 
 Desert Lark.! 
 
 * The so-called Mustela nivalis = M. vulgaris. Trans/. 
 t Cam's cerdo. Gin. J Ammonanes deserti. 
 
I! 
 
 III. 
 
 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 
 rangifevina) 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, lie 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 erythropus), 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 is nowhere really numerous. It seems to prefer 
 streams with muddy banks, and thick, clay-stained water, 
 
37 
 
 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 (Cygmis 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 morinellus), 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 (Stercovarius 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 in the 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 Arvicola, 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 (My odes schisticolor), and the 
 Bank Vole (A. glareolus), 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 (Archibut&o 
 lagopus) and various species of owl ; especially Short-eared Owls 
 (Asio brachyotus) and Snowy Owls ; and Gyr-falcons (Hierofalco 
 gyrfalco) 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, 
 
4 o 
 
 and at the same time so prolific that they have as many as ten 
 eggs in their nest. 
 
 The process of hatching of such an unusual clutch for a raptorial 
 bird is abnormal. 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 brothers and 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, e.g., with the Rough-legged Buzzard, or with the Hawk- 
 Owl (Surnia funerta), increased beyond the normal number. 
 
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. 
 major"), 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 excubitor 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. excubitor ; but it has a strong tendency to variation in the dis- 
 
4 2 
 
 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. 
 
APPE NDIX 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A List of the Birds of Norway, arranged according to the 
 Rules of the B.O.U. 
 
 The total number of Birds, hitherto found in Norway, is ... 
 The number of Breeding Species is : 
 
 Kegular (normal) Breeders ... 
 
 Rare Breeders ... 
 
 Uncertain Breeders ... 
 
 190 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 27S 
 
 The number of Non-breeding Visitors, is : 
 Annual (normal) Visitors 
 
 Rare Visitors 
 
 " Meteoric " Visitor 
 
 Accidental Visitors 
 
 12 
 13 
 
 1 
 40 
 
 212 
 
 Besides these there are 3 Hybrids. 
 
 6f> 
 
 A. BREEDING SPECIES. 
 1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species). 
 
 Family TURDID^E 
 Subfamily TURDIN^E 
 Missel-Thrush. Turdusviscivorus.L'mn. 
 Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus. Linn. 
 Redwing. Turdus iliacns, Linn. 
 Fieldfare. Turdus pilaris, Linn. 
 Blackbird. Turdus merula, Linn. 
 Ring-Ouzel. Turdus torquatus, Linn. 
 Wheatear. Sascicola anantke, (Linn.) 
 Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra,(L\nn.") 
 Redstart. Ruticillaph cp.nicurus ( Linn . ) 
 Red-spotted Bluethroat. Cyanecula 
 
 suecica, (Linn.) 
 Redbreast. Erithacus rubecula, (Linn.) 
 
 Subfamily SYLVIIN^E 
 \Vhitethroat. Sylvia cinerea, Bechst. 
 Lesser Whitethroat. Sylvia curruca, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Blackcap. Sylvia atricapilla, (Linn.) 
 
 Subfamily SYLVIIN^E continued 
 Garden Warbler. Sylvia hortensis, 
 
 Bechst. 
 
 Goldcrest. Regulus cristatm, Koch. 
 Chiffchaff. Phylloscopusrufus, (Bechst.) 
 Willow- Warbler. Pkylloscopus trochilus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Siberian Willow- Warbler. Phylloscopu* 
 
 boreahs, (Blasius.) 
 Icterine Warbler. Hypolais icterina, 
 
 (Vieill.) 
 Sedge-Warbler. Acrocephalus pltrag- 
 
 mitis, (Bechst.) 
 
 Subfamily ACCENTOEIN^: 
 Hedge-sparrow. Accentor modular}*, 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family CINCLID^E 
 Dipper. Cinclus aquaticus, Bechst. 
 
IV 
 
 A. BREEDING SPECIES. 
 1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species) continued 
 
 Family PARID2E 
 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. Parus cinctus, Bodd. 
 Blue Titmouse. Parus ccerulcus, Linn. 
 Crested Titmouse. Parus cristatus, 
 
 Linn. 
 
 Family SITTIDJS 
 
 Northern Nuthatch. Sitta europcea, 
 Linn. 
 
 Family TROGLODYTIDJE 
 Wren. Troglodytes parvulus, Koch. 
 
 Family MOTACILLID^E 
 White Wagtail. Motacilla alba, Linn. 
 Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. Motacilla 
 
 flava, Linn. 
 Meadow- Pipit. Anthus pratensis, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Red-throated Pipit. Anthus cervinus, 
 
 (Pall.) 
 
 Tree-Pipit. Anthus trivialis, (Linn.) 
 Rock-Pipit. Anthus obscurus, (Lath.) 
 
 Family LANIID^ 
 Great Grey Shrike. Lanius excubitor, 
 
 Linn. 
 Red-backed Shrike. 
 Linn. 
 
 Lanius collurio. 
 
 Family AMPELID^ 
 Waxwing. Ampelis garrulus, Linn. 
 
 Family MUSCICAPID^ 
 
 Spotted Fly catcher. Muscicapa grisola, 
 
 Linn. 
 Pied Flycatcher. Muscicapa atricapilla, 
 
 Linn. 
 
 Family HIRUNDINID.E 
 
 Swallow. Hirundo rustica, Linn. 
 Martin. Clielidon urbica, (Linn.) 
 Sand- Martin. Cotile riparia, (Linn.) 
 
 Family CERTHIID^ 
 Tree-creeper. Certhiafamiliaris, Linn. 
 
 Family FRINGILLID^ 
 
 Goldfinch. Carduelis elegans, Steph. 
 Siskin. Chrysomitris spinus, Gould. 
 Greenfinch. Liyurinus chloris, Gould. 
 House-Sparrow. Passer domesticus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus,(Liuii). 
 Chaffinch. Fringilla ccelebs, Linn. 
 Brambling. Frinffilla montif ring ilia. 
 
 Linn. 
 
 Linnet. Linota cannabina, (Linn.) 
 Mealy Redpoll. Linota linaria, (Linn.) 
 Twite. Linota flavirostris, (Linn.) 
 
 Subfamily 
 Northern Bullfinch. Pyrrhula major, 
 
 Brehm. 
 Pine Grosbeak. Pinicola enucleator, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Parrot Crossbill. Loxia pityopsittacus, 
 
 Bechst. 
 Crossbill. Loxia curvirostra, Linn. 
 
 Subfamily EMBERIZIN^: 
 Corn-Bunting. Enibcriza miliaria, 
 
 Linn. 
 Yellow Hammer. Eniberiza citrinella, 
 
 Linn. 
 Ortolan Bunting. Emberiza hortulana, 
 
 Linn. 
 Reed- Bunting. Emberiza scliceniclus, 
 
 Linn, 
 Lapland Bunting. Calcarius lapponicus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Snow- Bun ting. Plectrophanes nivalis, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family STURNID^E 
 Starling. Sturnus vulgaris, Linn. 
 
 Family 
 
 Nutcracker. Nucifraga caryocatactcs, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Siberian Jay. Perisoreus infauxtus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Jay. Garrnlus glandarius, (Linn.) 
 Magpie. Pica rustica, (Seep.) 
 Jackdaw. Corvus monedula, Liun. 
 Hooded Crow. Corvus comix, Linn. 
 Rook. Corvus frugilegus, Linn. 
 Raven. Corvus cor ax, Linn. 
 
A. BREEDING SPECIES. 
 
 I. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species) continued 
 
 Family ALAUDLELE 
 Sky-Lark. Alauda arvensi*, Linn. 
 Wood-Lark. Alauda arborea, Linn. 
 Shore-Lark. Otucorys alpestris, (Linn. 
 
 Swift. 
 
 Family CYPSELIM] 
 Cypselus apus, (Linn.) 
 
 Fam. CAPRIMULGID.E 
 Nightjar. Caprimulgvs europceua, Linn 
 
 Family PICID.E 
 
 Subfamily 
 Great Black Woodpecker. Picus 
 
 martins, Linn. 
 Great Spotted Woodpecker. Dendro- 
 
 copus major, (Linn.) 
 White-backed Woodpecker. Dendro- 
 
 copus Itiuconotns, Bechst. 
 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Dendro- 
 
 copus minor, (Linn.) 
 Three-toed Woodpecker. Picoides 
 
 tridactylus, (Linn.) 
 Green Woodpecker. Geeinus viridis, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Grey-headed Green Woodpecker. 
 
 Geeinus canits, (Guiel.) 
 
 Subfamily 
 Wryneck. lynx torquilla, Linn. 
 
 Family CUCULID^E 
 Cuckoo. Ouculns canorus, Linn. 
 
 Family ASIONID^ 
 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. Nyctea scandiaca, (Linn.) 
 European Hawk-Owl. Surnia ulula, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Tengmalm's Owl. Nyctala tengmalmi, 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 
 Eagle Owl. Bubo ignavus, Newton. 
 Pygmy Owl. Glaucidium passerinum, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family FALCONID^E 
 Buzzard. Buteo vulgaris, Leach. 
 Rough-legged Buzzard. Archibuteo 
 lagopus, (Gmel.) 
 
 Family FALCONID^l continued 
 
 Golden Eagle. Aquila chrysaetus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 White-tailed Eagle. Haliaetus albicilla, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Gos-Hawk. Asiur palumbarius, (Linn.) 
 Sparrow-Hawk. Accipiter nisvs, (Linn.) 
 Gyr Falcon. Hierofalco gyrfalco,(L\^n.} 
 Peregrine Falcon. Falco peregrinus, 
 
 Tun stall. 
 
 Hobby. Falco subbuteo, Linn. 
 Merlin. Falco aasalon, Tunstall. 
 Kestrel. Tinnunculus alaudarixs, 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 Osprey. Pandion haliaetus, (Linn.) 
 
 Family PELECANID^ 
 
 Cormorant. Phalacrocorax carlo, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Shag. Phalacrocorax graculus, (Linn.) 
 
 Family ARDEID^ 
 Heron. Ardca cinerea, Linn. 
 
 Family ANATID.E 
 
 Gray Lag Goose. Anser cinereus, Me)'er. 
 Bean-Goose. Anser segetum, (Gmel.) 
 Lesser White-fronted Goose. Anse.r 
 
 erythropus, (Linn.) 
 Whooper Swan. Cygnus tnusicus, 
 
 Bechst. 
 Common Sheldrake. Tadorna cornuta. 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 
 Wigeon. Mareca pcnelopc, (Linn.) 
 Pintail. Dafila acufa, (Linn.) 
 Wild Duck. Anas boscas, Linn. 
 Common Teal. Querquedula crecca, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Tufted Duck, Faligula cristata, 
 
 (Leach.) 
 
 Scaup. Fulignln marila, (Linn.) 
 Goldeneve. Clangula fjlaucion, (Linn.) 
 Long-tailed Duck'. Harclda glacialix, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Eider Duck. Somateria molliss'una, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Common Scoter. (Edcmia nigra, (Linn.) 
 Velvet Scoter. (Edemia fusca. (Linn.) 
 Goosander. Mergus merganser. Linn. 
 Red-breasted Merganser. Mergus serra- 
 tor. Linn. 
 
VI 
 
 A. BEEEDING SPECIES. 
 
 1. Regular (Normal) Breeders (190 Species) continued 
 
 Family COLUMBID^ 
 
 Ring-Dove. Columba palumbus, Linn. 
 Stock- Dove. Columba, aenas. Linn. 
 
 Family PHASIANID^] 
 
 Partridge. Perdix cinerea, Lath. 
 Quail. Coturnix communis, Bonnat. 
 
 Family TETRAONID.E 
 Ptarmigan. Lagopu* mutus, (Montiu.) 
 Willow Grouse. Lagopns albus, (Guiel.) 
 Hazel Grouse. Sonasa betvlirta-, (Scop.) 
 Black Grouse. Tetrao tetrix, Linn. 
 Capercaillie. Tetrao urogallus, Linn. 
 
 Family RALLID^E 
 
 Water-Rail. Rallus aquations, Linn. 
 Spotted Crake. Porzana maruetta, 
 
 (Leach.) 
 
 Corn-Crake. Crex pratensis, Bechst. 
 Moor-hen. Gallinula chloropus, (Linn.) 
 
 Crane. 
 
 Family GRUID^E 
 Grus communu. Bechst. 
 
 Family CHARADRIIDJS 
 Golden Plover. Charadrius pluvialis, 
 
 Linn. 
 Little Ringed Plover. (Egialitu curo- 
 
 nica, (Gmel.) 
 Ringed Plover. (Egialitis liiaticula, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Dotterel. Eiidromiasmorinellus, (Linn.) 
 Lapwing. Vanellus vulgaris, Bechst. 
 Turnstone. Strepsilas interpret, (Linn.) 
 Oyster-catcher. Hcematopus ostralegus, 
 
 Linn. 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^B 
 
 Red-necked Phalarope. Phalaropus 
 
 Jtypcrboreus, (Ijinu.) 
 Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn. 
 Great Snipe. Gallinago major, (Gmel.) 
 Common Snipe. Gallinago ceelestis, 
 
 (Frenzel) 
 Jack Snipe. X/hnnoaryptes gallinula, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Broad-billed Sandpiper. Limicola platy- 
 
 rhyncha, (Temm.) 
 Dunlin. Tringa alpina, Linn. 
 Temminck's Stint. Tringa temmineki, 
 
 Leisl. 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^] continued 
 
 Purple Sandpiper. Tringa striata, 
 
 Linn. 
 
 Ruff. Machetes puqnax, (Linn.) 
 Common Sandpiper. Tringoides hypo- 
 
 leucus (Linn.) 
 Green Sandpiper. Helodromas ochropus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Wood-Sandpiper. Totanus ylareola, 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 
 Redshank. Totanus calidris, (Linn.) 
 Spotted Redshank. Totanus fmcus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Greenshank. Totanus cancscens, (Gmel.) 
 Bar-tailed God wit. Limosa lapponica, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Whimbrel. Numeniusphceopus,(L\vn.) 
 Curlew. JNunu-nius arquata, (Linn.) 
 
 Family 
 Subfamily 
 Arctic Tern. Sterna macrura. Naum. 
 Common Tern. Sterna jiuviatiUs. 
 Naum. 
 
 Subfamily LARIN^E 
 Kittiwake. Risrn tridactyla, (Linn.) 
 Herring-Gull. Larus argentatus, Gmel. 
 Lesser Black-backed Gull. Larus fus- 
 
 cus. Linn. 
 
 Common Gull. Larus canus, Linn. 
 Greater Black-backed Gull. Larus 
 
 marinus, Linn. 
 
 Subfamily STERCORARIINJ3 
 Richardson's Skua. Stercorarius orepi- 
 
 datus, (Gmel.) 
 Buff on 's Skua. Stercorarius parasitivus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family COLYMBID^ 
 Black -throated Diver. Colymbus arcti- 
 
 cus, Linn. 
 
 Red-throated Diver. Colymbus septen- 
 trionalis, Linn. 
 
 Family PODICIPIDJE 
 Sclavonian Grebe. Podiceps auritus, 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family ALCID^E 
 Razorbill. Alca torda, Linn. 
 Common Guillemot. Lomvia troile, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Black Guillemot. Uria grylle, (Linn.) 
 Puffin. Fratercula arctica, (Linn.) 
 
Vll 
 
 A. BEEEDING 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 Limosa lapponica. Two species breed in so limited numbers, that they might 
 with almost equal propriety have been classed under " Rare breeders," namely, 
 Ember iza milizria and Corvus frugilegus. It 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 '31. vir id-is ^ Gmel. 
 
 2. Rare Breeders (7 .Species). 
 
 Family TURDIDJS 
 Subfamily SYLVIIN^J 
 Wood- Warbler. Pkylloscopus sibilatritt, 
 (Bechst.) 
 
 Family MOTACILLID.E 
 Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugubris, 
 Temm. 
 
 Family FALCONID.E 
 Hen-Harrier. Circus cyaneus, (Linn.) 
 Kite. Milvus ictimis, Savigny. 
 
 Family RALLID^E 
 Coot. Fulica atra, Linn. 
 
 Family CHARADRIID.E 
 
 Kentish Plover. (Egialitis cantiana, 
 (Lath.) 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^ 
 Little Stint. Tringa minuta, Leisl. 
 
 3. Uncertain Breeders (15 Species). 
 
 Family TURDIDJE 
 Subfamily SYLVIIN^E 
 Grasshopper Warbler. Locustellancevia, 
 (Bodd.) 
 
 Family FRINGILLED.E 
 Hawfinch. Coccothraustes vulgar is, Pall. 
 
 Subfamily 
 White- winged Crossbill. 
 tera, Ginel. 
 
 Loxia leucop- 
 
 Family ALCEDINID^ 
 Kingfisher. Alcedo isyida, Linn. 
 
 Hoopoe. 
 
 Family UPUPID^ 
 Upupa epops, Linn. 
 
 Family ANATID^ 
 Barnacle Goose. Bernicla leucopsis, 
 
 (Bechst.) 
 Garganey. Qtierquedula drcia, (Linn.) 
 
 Family ANATID^E continued 
 Shoveller. Spatula clypcata, (Linn.) 
 
 Family COLUMBID^S 
 Rock-Dove. Columba livia, Bonat. 
 Turtle Dove. Turtur communis, Selby. 
 
 Family 
 Subfamily 
 Black-headed Gull. Larus ridlbuhdus, 
 Linn. 
 
 Family COLYMBIDJ3 
 Ureat Northern Diver. Colymbus glaci- 
 alis, Linn. 
 
 Family PODICIPID^ 
 Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps crista- 
 
 tus (Linn.) 
 Red-necked Grebe. Podiceps griseiqena, 
 
 (Bodd.) 
 Little Grebe. Tacliybaptes fluviatilis, 
 
 (Tunstall.) 
 
 All these " Uncertain Breeders " make their appearance only sparingly, generally 
 during the autumnal migration, or in the winter ; a few only in summer. Locvstclla 
 ncevia 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. 
 
Vlll 
 
 B. NON-BEEEDING VISITOES. 
 
 Family PELECANID^ 
 Gannet. Sula bassana, (Linn.) 
 
 1. Annual (Normal) Visitors (12 Species). 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^ 
 Curlew Sandpiper. Tringa subarquata , 
 
 (Giild.) 
 
 Knot. Tringa canutus. Linn. 
 Sanderling. Calidris arcnaria. (Linn.) 
 
 Family ANATID^E 
 White-fronted Goose. Anser albifrons, 
 
 (Scop.) 
 
 Brent Goose. Bernicla brenta, (Pall.) 
 Stellers Duck. Heniconetta stelleri, 
 
 (Pall.) 
 King Eider. Somateria spectabilis. 
 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family CHARADRIID^E 
 Grey Plover. Squatarola Jielvetica, 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family LARID^E 
 Subfamily LAB.IN.E 
 Glaucous Gull. Larus glaucus, Fabr. 
 
 Family PROCELLARIID^ 
 Fulmar. Fulmarus glacialis. (Linn.) 
 
 Family ALCIDJE 
 Little Auk. Mergulus alle, (Linn.) 
 
 To these "Annual Visitors" may be added the easterly form of Nucifraga 
 caryocatactes (forma maerorliynclnis, 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 CICONITD^ 
 White Stork. Cieonia alba, Bechst. 
 
 Family AN ATI D^ 
 Pink- footed Goose. Anser brachy- 
 
 rhynchus, Baill. 
 
 Bewick's Swan. Cygnus bervicM, Yarr. 
 Pochard. Fuligula ferma (Linn.) 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^ 
 Grey Phalarope. Phalar opus fulicar ins. 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family 
 Subfamily STERNINJE 
 Black Tern. Hydroclielidon nigra, 
 (Linn). 
 
 Subfamily LARINJE 
 
 Ivory Gull. Pagophila eburnea, (Phipps) 
 Iceland Gull. Larus leucopterus. Faber. 
 
 Subfamily STERCOBAHIIN^E 
 Pomatorhine Skua. Stercorarim poma- 
 torkinus, (Gould) 
 
 Family PROCELLARIID^ 
 Storm- Petrel. Procellaria pelagica. 
 
 Linn. 
 Manx Shearwater. Puffinus anglorum, 
 
 (Temm.) 
 
 Family 
 
 Brunnich's Guillemot. Lomvia bruen- 
 nicM, (Sabine) 
 
 3. Meteoric Visitor (1 Species.) 
 
 Family PTEROCLID^. 
 Pallas's Sand-Grouse. Syrrhaptes paradoxus, (Pall). 
 
IX 
 
 Purple Heron. Ardea p urpu rea. Linn. 
 Little Bittern. Ardctta minuta, (Linn.) 
 Bittern. Botaurus stellaris, (Linn.) 
 
 Family CICONIID^E 
 Black Stork. Ciconia niyra, (Linn.) 
 
 B. NON-BBEEDING VISITOES. 
 
 4. Accidental Visitors (41 Species.) 
 Family TURDIDJE Family 
 
 Subfamily TUBBING 
 
 Dusky Thrush. Turdus fuscatm, Pall. 
 Black-throated Thrush. Turdus atri- 
 
 gularis, Temm. 
 
 White's Thrush. Turdus varius, Pall. 
 Stonechat. Pratlncola rubicola, (Linn.) 
 Black Redstart. Ruticillv tif-ys, (Scop.) 
 
 Family MOTACILLID^E 
 
 Grey Wagtail. Motacillamelanope, Pall. 
 Yellow Wagtail. JMotacilla rail, ( Bp.) 
 Richard's Pipit. Anthus ricJiardi, Vieill. 
 
 Family ORIOLID^ 
 Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula, Linn. 
 
 Family FRINGILLID^ 
 Subfamily LOXIIN^: 
 
 Rosy Bullfinch. Carpodacus erythrinus, 
 (Pall.) 
 
 Family STURNID^ 
 
 Rose-coloured Pastor. Pastor roscus, 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family CORVID^ 
 Carrion- Crow. Corvus cor one, Linn. 
 
 Family ALAUDID^ 
 Crested Lark. Alauda cristata, Linn. 
 
 Family CORACIID^ 
 Roller. Caracias garrula, Linn.' 
 
 Family FALCONID^ 
 
 Marsh-Harrier. Circus ceruginosus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Pallid Harrier. Circus swainsoni. 
 
 Smith. 
 
 * Greenland Falcon. Hierofalco islandus, 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 
 * Iceland Falcon. Hierofalco rusti- 
 
 colus, (Fabr.) 
 
 Family PL AT AL 
 
 Spoonbill. Platalaa leucorodia, Linn. 
 Glossy Ibis. PlegaAis falcinellus 
 (Linn.) 
 
 Family ANATID^E 
 
 Snow-Goose. Clien hylerboreus, (Pall.) 
 Mute Swan. Cygnus olor, (Gmel.) 
 Ruddy Sheldrake. Tadorna, easarva, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Gadwall. Chaulelasmus strcperus, 
 
 (Linn.) 
 Barrow's Goldeneye. Clangulaislandica, 
 
 (Gmel.) 
 Smew. Mergus albellus. Linn. 
 
 Family 
 Little Bustard. Otis tetrax, Linu. 
 
 Family GLAREOLIDJ3 
 
 Nordmann's Pratincole. Glarcola 
 melanoptera, Nordm. 
 
 Family SCOLOPACID^ 
 Avocet. Recurvirostra avocetta, Linn. 
 
 Family 
 Subfamily STERNIN^E 
 Sandwich Tern. Sterna cantiaca, Gmel. 
 
 Subfamily LARINJB 
 
 Little Gull. Larus minutus, Pall. 
 Sabine's Gull. Xema sabinii, (Sabine) 
 
 See next page. 
 
B. -NON-BREEDING VISITORS. 
 
 4. Accidental Visitors (41 Species) continued. 
 
 Family LARIDJ3 
 Subfamily STERCORARIIN^E 
 Common Skua. Stercorarius catarr- 
 hactes, (Linn.) 
 
 Family PROCELLAR1ID.E 
 
 Leach's Petrel. Procelleria leucorrkoa, 
 
 Vieill. 
 Greater Shearwater. Puffinus major, 
 
 Faber. 
 
 Family COLYMBID.E 
 
 Yellow-billed Diver. Colynibus adamsi. 
 Gray. 
 
 Family PODICIPLlhE 
 
 Eared Grebe. Podiceps. nigricoll'is, C. 
 L. Brehm. 
 
 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 specific rank is disputed. 
 
 Tetrao tetrix 
 Lagopus albus 
 Lag opus albus 
 
 C. HYBRIDS. 
 Family TETRAONIDJS 
 
 ? + Tetrao urogallus ? (" Rakkel-Hane, " male and female). 
 $ (?) + Tetrao tetrix ? (?) (" Rype-Orre," male and female). 
 $ + Tetrao urogallus ? ("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. V'idensk. Sels. Fork., 18'JO, 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. candieans, 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, F. 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 F. gyrfalco, was as 
 long ago as 1780 named by Fabricius in his Fauna Groenlandica, F. rusticolus 
 (and its immature form, F.fuscvs), after the species described in 1766 under that 
 name in Linmeus' Syst. Nat., ed. xii. Although Linnseus' description of F. 
 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 : "ex Suecia" a country, where the species can, at 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 F. islandus). 
 
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