ALFHEIM, 1913 203 



objects as well as fish. Bird life especially interests 

 me, but on the whole I was disappointed at the scarcity 

 of living creatures. In spite of the profusion of berries 

 there were hardly any fruit-eating birds to take 

 advantage of them. The rushy margins of the in- 

 numerable lakes promised food and shelter for ducks 

 and water-fowl, and I should have anticipated seeing 

 any quantity of the common wild duck, the most ubi- 

 quitous of birds in their range, but I only just " saved 

 my duck " by seeing one flock which rose all round me 

 on my last morning when I was passing in the boat 

 through the Suez Canal on my way to join my cart and 

 luggage at Vangen. 



Several times I enjoyed favourable opportunities 

 of watching the great red-throated diver. One day 

 just before our boat emerged from the passage into 

 the big lake, I heard a loud croaking sound difficult 

 to describe. It was certainly not the bark of a 

 raven, although it rather reminded me of it. I should 

 not describe it, as Mr. Frohawk does, as "a mixture 

 between the cackle of a guinea-fowl and the bray of 

 an ass," but it is notoriously difficult to convey a cor- 

 rect idea of sounds by written description. Anyhow 

 the birds whose note I had heard were red-throated 

 divers, five of which we soon spied on our left. We 

 turned the boat towards them, and tried to get as 

 near to them as we could. They were very shy, and 

 after diving once or twice, took wing and flighted 

 round our boat just out of gunshot. They looked as 

 big as geese, and their flight resembled that of an 

 eider. We had no gun with us, or I think my com- 

 panion would have tried to get a shot at them, as they 

 are very destructive to fish, for which reason the 



