29 
where we lodge with the friendly Kven (=Finlander), Johan 
Kolstrém, before we pause at the sound of the characteristic call- 
note of the Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator), one of the prettiest 
birds of our fauna; and in the (still in the beginning of July) 
leafless birch-trees we quickly discover its loosely built nest, 
composed of dry birch-twigs. Its life-history and habits are 
remarkable. Undismayed in the presence of danger, the Pine 
Grosbeak sits on its eggs so zealously, that it sometimes allows 
itself to be touched by hand before leaving the nest; it then 
flutters some few paces away, and gazes without shyness upon 
the strange disturber. 
It is not an easy thing to give fixed rules for the variation of 
colour, which appears in the different ages and sexes both in this 
species, and in its relations the Crossbills (genus Lowxia). In the 
flocks of Pine Grossbeaks, which make their appearance in the 
autumn on the lowlands in southern Norway, some of the males are 
crimson of various shades, othersare yellowish; and some greenish- 
yellow males may be so absolutely like the females, which are 
always so coloured, that no external difference can be detected 
between them. But in some years one meets with hardly any 
but red males, in others mainly yellow specimens, and it seems 
almost as if the young males’ first plumage was in some years 
formed with the majority red, and in others yellow. 
The commonest species of Tit in these high-lying birch-woods, 
is the Lapland Tit (Pavus cinctus), which in its life-history and 
habits approaches the Northern Marsh Tit (Pavrus borealis), and like 
it hollows out its nesting-hole in the dry birch stumps. It is the 
‘« Talgoxe ”’* of the inhabitants of Finmarken, and comes in the 
winter into the houses, in order to peck at the fat in the joints 
of reindeer meat hanging outside the store-houses. 
Before we have proceeded far along the bank of the 
river, where the birch wood grows luxuriantly on the warm 
slopes, our attention will be arrested by the voice of an un- 
known songster, which, with short intervals, repeats his stanza 
with incredible perseverance. This song, which may be heard 
by the hour at a time, and at all hours of the day or night, but 
* Lit. Tallow-ox.— Zvans/. 
