98 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



the place is gay with Iceland poppies, and grace- 

 ful columbines, brought from England a year or 

 two ago, and now well established the most 

 successful of a considerable variety of plants 

 we have endeavoured to acclimatise. There is 

 also an apple orchard, a lovely object when 

 it blooms in early June. In the trees sur- 

 rounding the orchard there is always a nest 

 of magpies, a sacred bird in Norway ; and the 

 garden is the haunt of a very friendly race of 

 wagtails. This year a pair of pied flycatchers 

 have built in a hole in the roof of the farmer's 

 house here, and all day long are popping in 

 and out. The green woodpecker may some- 

 times be observed on the trunk of the oak tree ; 

 and this July my wife watched for some time 

 a family of a mother and four full-grown young 

 ones on some trees near the road. Norway is 

 not prolific of small birds, but this year they 

 seem to be far more numerous than usual, 

 perhaps owing to a great decrease which we 

 notice in the number of grey crows. 



The house, built a hundred years ago, is of the 

 old Norwegian type, solidly constructed of logs 

 with outside boarding. Its roominess and the 

 character of its decorations and appointments 



