NORWEGIAN BIRD NOTES 



of green islands and promontories, where the 

 silvery hues of the birches gleam against the 

 darkness of the pines. For the whole of its 

 course this river presents a succession of beautiful 

 scenes. Now its single channel is pent in to the 

 breadth of a few yards by black walls of rock ; 

 now it broadens into great lagoons, with placid 

 margins fringed with reeds, where the mallard 

 and dabchick sport ; and, again, after a headlong 

 plunge through a stony gorge, it finds peace again 

 in the recesses of the woods, where it divides into 

 many rippling streams, each following a devious 

 way through a tangle of over-hanging leaf and 

 bough. 



From time to time most of the birds of the river 

 may be seen here— the redshank, sandpiper, and 

 dipper are never far away — and as one wanders 

 in waders through the leafy streams of this 

 angler's paradise, where the trout run to a good 

 pound or more, and twenty may be regarded as 

 an average basket, the birds treat him as a friend, 

 and luncheon time is enlivened by the presence 

 of chaffinch, brambling, flycatcher, and willow 

 wren in the boughs above his head, and with the 

 constantly attentive wagtails tripping on the 

 shingle at his feet. 



One interesting feature in Norway is what 

 may be described as the roof garden. On many 

 of the saeters and lower buildings the thick cover- 

 ing of turf which forms the roof provides a soil 

 in which many grasses and flowers, and, on 

 occasion, trees of considerable size flourish ex- 

 ceedingly. These little patches of often quite 

 luxuriant vegetation, raised to a convenient 

 elevation above road or field, form a favoured 

 haunt for many varieties of birds. On the ash 

 tree, for example, which springs from the angle 

 near the chimney of one of these, a magpie alights 



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