217 31 



of the acicular leaves, a few of its own feathers and of those of 

 the ptarmigan being inserted here and there. In the bottom were 

 stalks of dried grass, and such uncommon materials as withered 

 leaves and fragments of a wasp's nest. 



In the stomachs of individuals snared in Nordmarken, near 

 Christiania, in the autumn and winter of 1871, I found, besides 

 roan berries, bilberries, and divers seeds, a Sorex pygmceus, and 

 the larvse of several species of Geometridee and Noctuce. 

 Ampelis r/arruUis, Lin. 



The first reliable observation proving the occurrence of this 

 bird as a breeding species on Norwegian ground, was made, not 

 as might have been supposed in the tracts bordering on Russian 

 and Swedish Lapland, but in the wooded region south of the Dovre. 

 The 5th Aug. 1860, my friend Mr. Barth shot a young bird just fledg- 

 ed, which, with the rest of the brood, was frequenting the upper- 

 most conifer woods in Vaage, Gudbrandsdalen (61" 50'). The eggs 

 from which the brood were hatched must have been laid in the 

 beginning of July. So far back as 1858, it was repeatedly obser- 

 ved in the course of the summer in the subalpine conifer woods 

 of Valders; an individual having been snared in Land (61°) at the 

 latter end of May 1862, there is good reason to suppose, that the 

 species, at least in certain years, breeds sporadically in the woods 

 of southern Norway. 



In the summer of 1868, Nordvi procured its eggs, for the first 

 time, from South Varanger, near the Anarjoki, a tributary of the 

 Tana. In the outlying districts ofFinmark, it rarely occurs, a few 

 individuals only having been observed. 



At Bosekop, in Alten, I found this species abundant in July 

 1872. I observed the first pair on the 14th of that month in a wet 

 clump of foliferous trees (Salices). The female being killed, the 

 male would not quit the spot, but flew about wildly, uttering his 

 ordinary cry, and at intervals a peculiar note, expressive of dread, 

 never heard in winter. 



Both of these individuals, as also a third shot the same day 

 (i), were found on examination to be in the middle of the breeding- 



