NORWAY 51 



to try for Skov Ryper, Black Duck, etc. The lake where 

 we expected to see the latter is still frozen up. 



Just above the birch belt, up got two 2 Ptarmigan 

 and a cock, one of the females off her nest of seven eggs. 

 I shot her, and Ole killed the other two. The nest was a 

 slight hollow, lined sparingly with juniper tops, leaves of 

 dwarf birch, and a few of the bird's feathers. It was 

 situated at the root of a juniper bush, overhung by a 

 branch of juniper, which almost completely concealed it. 



We now had a bad walk through about a mile of a field 

 of snow, and in the centre we plunged through a bog up 

 to our middles. The marsh water under two or three feet 

 of snow was piercingly cold, but with snow water the 

 cold does not last long, the reaction in this case soon 

 putting our feet and legs in a glow of warmth. 



We visited a rock where Eagles * are said to have bred 

 on the side of a burn. A snowdrift at least 12 feet 

 deep, hung on the edge of the cliff on both sides, and the 

 whole rock was dripping with melting snow. A few 

 more days of this kind of weather and the lakes will be 

 clear of ice. 



Ole tells me that the Berg-Ulf (or Eagle Owl) breeds, or 

 used to breed, every year on the opposite side of the valley 

 within sight of this house and he will speak to ' Lars 

 Porsena ' to-night about trying to find it. 



He pointed out to me also a Soeter upon the roof 

 of which or of another adjoining a Fjeld Ryper 

 (Ptarmigan) had its nest some years ago, and when the 

 girl came up to the Soeter in summer, the birds became 

 almost quite tame. This Sceter is the same which stands 

 just above the pools where yesterday I killed the Teal, 

 and where to-day Ole killed another. 



From description the Snowy Owl has probably been 

 seen here upon occasions. 



* Bough-legged Buzzards. 



