170 THE NATUEALIST IN NORWAY. 



Christiania when migrating. It is called here the blis- 

 gaas, or goose with a blaze; nests in the high fjelds 

 by the waterside,, where it lays from four to six yellow- 

 white eggs. Nilsson says, " Kottet ar ganska smak- 

 ligt," or, " Its flesh is very savoury." 



The Brent goose (A. brenta) is also said to breed in 

 Finmark. The Swedes call it the prut, as the peculiar 

 noise which it makes is supposed to resemble the voice 

 of an old woman who is beating down the price, prut, 

 of an article she wishes to buy. 



The red-breasted goose (A. ruficollis) has been twice 

 killed in Sweden. I may mention, for the information 

 of naturalists travelling in that country, that they may 

 be seen in the Royal Museum at Lund. It has been 

 once seen in Norway. 



The pink-footed goose (A. brachyrhynchus) has been 

 seen, in summer, in Bast Finmark. It is probably 

 identical with Kjaerbolling's dvarg gaas, or dwarf goose. 



"The swan/' says Pontoppidan, "is a rare visitor, 

 and is not, properly speaking, a Norsk bird, wherefore 

 it is not found in the east country, where the winter 

 does not leave any water unfrozen, but on the western 

 side, where I have observed that the winters have 

 been milder than in Denmark and Germany, and 

 where the sea is always open ; there swans are found, 

 especially in Sund-fjord by Svane-gaard and the 

 neighbourhood, but not in any great numbers, for they 

 are but the young of some few stragglers, which the 

 hard winters of 1719 and 1740 drove hither, in search 

 of open water, when the frost was so severe in France, 

 that the sentinels died at their posts, the vines were 

 frozen, and the birds fell down dead from the air. 

 Then the whole Baltic Sea was frozen, and people 



