BUTTERFLIES AND FLOWERS OF NORWAY. 213 



The feeling of exhaustion at the end of one long day there I 

 shall never forget ; it taught me at all events one useful lesson, 

 to wit, that age has its very well-defined limits of endurance. 



The Argynnis aphirape (common here also) was, I find, the 

 var. ossianus of Herbst, very distinct in the bright silver blotches 

 of the under side, and little more than half the size of the type, 

 of which I have specimens from Germany. The palceno also are 

 all var. lapponica, Stgr. 



I should like here to make an observation on Erebia embla, 

 which does not, however, appear to occur at Bolkesjo. Herr 

 Schoyen states that in 1884, 1886, and 1888 he found it in great 

 abundance at Disenaaen, but that in 1885 and 1887 he saw none 

 at all. From this he naturally argues that it is a constant 

 biennial, which seems remarkably strange, as it is hard to 

 believe that in the course of ages there may not have been an 

 occasional overlapping. One would like to know how it behaves 

 in Lapland, or whether it has been the object of experiment in 

 captivity, and whether other Erebias lie over in the same way. 



The flora here was less varied than at Saeterstoen, but many 

 of the same plants were still to the fore ; and I may mention 

 two of the more prominent that were omitted in my former 

 paper, viz. a fine form of Geranium pyrenaicum, common every- 

 where, and a lovely crimson dog-rose growing, not in hedges as 

 with us, but in isolated bushes, at not infrequent intervals by 

 the roadside. My fellow-traveller (to whose superior botanical 

 knowledge I was always glad to defer in cases of doubt) pro- 

 nounces it to be Rosa cinnamomea. The last year's berries of 

 Vaccinium oxycoccus, the true cranberry, were still lying, attached 

 to their stalks, on the top of the mosses among which they grew, 

 and were still juicy and full of refreshing flavour. 



Bird-life seemed to be strangely lacking, both in numbers and 

 variety. The only small birds I noted at Saeterstoen were the 

 common sparrow and the house martin. I also saw four young 

 Fringillinse, with grey speckled breasts and thick beaks, roosting 

 on one of the lower branches of a fir, and should have said they 

 were hawfinches, only Dr. Bowdler Sharpe tells me that this 

 species is only a winter visitor in Norway. They were probably 

 the crossbill, Loxia curvirostra, L., which breeds largely in 

 Scandinavia, and does not acquire the crossing in the beak till 

 after three weeks old. Of the ordinary song-birds we heard 

 none, although the breeding season can scarcely have been over 

 when we first arrived. Among larger birds, the grey crow and 

 the magpie were abundant, we saw a few wood pigeons, and 

 heard a corncrake and the green woodpecker. In the forest, 

 close to Bolkesjo, we were frequently startled by the superb 

 capercailzie, Tetrao urogallus, L., commonly known as the cock- 

 of- the -wood. When the male bird swoops up from the ground, 

 or from the low branch where he has been sitting, and crashes 



