THE WILD REINDEER OF NORWAY. 29 



considerable time. This species is by no means rare 

 in the mountainous districts of Norway, usually 

 building its nest 011 ledges of rock. Though I have 

 seen a nest of this species of eagle in the autumn 

 after the young had flown, I was unable to reach it 

 to investigate its structure, as it was built on a 

 small ledge of rock that projected from the face of 

 a steep precipice, and without ropes it would have 

 been impossible to have examined it. The white- 

 tailed eagle (Halicetus albicilla) seems almost 

 entirely confined to the coast and the vicinity of 

 the larger fjords, building on the cliffs which over- 

 hang the water, and generally placing its nest in 

 even more inaccessible situations than the golden 

 eagle. At length we reached the summit of the 

 cliff, and after both the hunter and myself had 

 examined the ground carefully with the glass, we 

 detected fourteen deer on one of the smaller snow 

 patches among the debris of shingly rock. The 

 wind was blowing from them to ourselves, and 

 by making a circuit so as to avoid the snow slope 

 before mentioned, we hoped to creep up under cover. 

 We accordingly started, keeping concealed as 

 much as possible when passing any ground that 

 might possibly be in the view of the watchful deer, 

 and scrambling with as much speed as we could 

 over the shattered masses of rock when we thought 

 they could not observe us. Several times during 



