NORWEGIAN BIRD NOTES 



At Muldoen one of the first birds to attract our 

 attention is the fieldfare. There is no mis- 

 taking the hazel-brown and ash-grey of the 

 plumage as the bird flits through the trees. A 

 little later, from the rough tussocks and shrubs 

 in the church-yard, a young fieldfare flutters up 

 at our feet. The fieldfare nests fairly early in 

 May, but at this date (June 3) one hardly ex- 

 pected to find the young already fully fledged. 

 Ivater, when we come to investigate many large 

 colonies, we find the nestlings in all stages of 

 development, and out of some scores of nests 

 which we examine, a very small minority contain 

 eggs. 



Now the steamer takes its way down the Nord- 

 fjord, that vast ravine where black precipitous 

 rocks tower for thousands of feet, and merge into 

 snowy crests, which stand pale and immaculate 

 against the blue sky. Through this great fissure, 

 which cleaves the mainland, we travel until at 

 length, in the small hours of the morning, the 

 estuary of Visnes is reached. The chief hotel, 

 with its carved and gaudily painted verandahs 

 and balconies, exists for the tourist crowd alone, 

 and is not yet open, so we, perforce, take up our 

 lodgment in the more modest hostelry which 

 nestles in the trees a small distance inland. 



At our feet, the Stryn River, famous for the 

 weight of its salmon, joins the estuary, and when 

 later, we trace its course upwards to the lakes 

 from which it descends, we find it flows through 

 a delightful valley, well wooded and cultivated, 

 which turns out to be a veritable paradise of 

 birds. Norway is often described as a land of 

 desolation ; and it is true, indeed, that one may 

 travel for many miles through fjord, mountain, 

 or pine wood and catch no glimpse of living thing. 

 Here, as in so many places elsewhere, the larger 



191 



