CHAPTER V. 



On the Scandinavian Fauna, with a complete List of every Quadruped, Bird, 

 Eeptile, and Fish, met with in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Fin- 

 land at the present day. 



I HAD some difficulty in deciding how I should set about this 

 part of my task ; for to write anything like a detailed account 

 of the Scandinavian fauna would have far exceeded my pre- 

 sent limits. I could, it is true, in a very short space, have 

 given a mere list of all the animals met with in this wide- 

 stretched continent, but I deemed the subject of too much 

 importance for so short a notice, more especially as I had 

 some few remarks to make on many of the different species, 

 especially the birds and fishes, from my own personal obser- 

 vation. Upwards of ten years collecting in the North has 

 rendered me pretty conversant with the northern fauna ; and 

 although I have always been well supplied with the best 

 works on the subject, there was one other of which I have 

 often felt the want, and that was a clear and concise descrip- 

 tion of every animal in the country, which would enable a 

 field naturalist like myself, possessing a slight knowledge of 

 classification, to decide at once to what species any specimen 

 belonged, which he might obtain in his rambles. I have no 

 doubt other collectors as well as myself have also felt the 

 want of such a book, which would give them in a few lines 

 such a short description of the leading characteristics of a 

 species, (which could be better relied upon than the colour 

 alone) without the trouble of referring to more elaborate 

 works, and wading through a page of description, to find out 

 what a few words would tell them at once. And when I was en- 

 gaged in compiling a list of the animals of the North, I deemed 



