12 Sweden. 



forests during the severest weather the tree-creeper, the wren, and 

 the gold-crest. Why these little stragglers should remain behind 

 after all their glad companions of summer have flitted to warmer 

 climes has always been a mystery to me. 



Some few species, such as the hen harrier, the grey plover, the 

 pigmy curlew, knot, sanderling, and bernicle goose, have not as yet, 

 to my knowledge, been detected breeding in Sweden, but are only 

 seen during their migrations to and from their breeding haunts, as 

 is supposed, in more north-easterly latitudes. With the exception 

 of an occasional rare seafowl, whose peculiar home is in the polar 

 seas, there are no regular winter migrants to Scandinavia. 



Some birds are yearly becoming more scarce in the north, for 

 instance, the shieldrake, bittern, ruff, lapwing, blacktern, black- 

 headed gull, and golden plover ; and, on the contrary, one or two 

 other species are gradually spreading themselves more widely over 

 the face of the country, such as the shore lark, Siberian titmouse, 

 &c. Many of the summer migrants do not appear in the same 

 numbers on each succeeding year. The nutcracker is a striking 

 instance of this fact j and I could never account for this it cer 

 tainly is not altogether owing to a scanty supply of food. 



That the British fauna is far richer in accidental varieties than 

 that of Scandinavia may be easily accounted for by the fact of the 

 former country being so densely populated and so closely examined, 

 that it is next to impossible for a strange bird to show itself on 

 the British shores without being at once noticed j whereas, such is 

 the wild nature of the Scandinavian landscape, and so thinly are 

 the habitations of man scattered over its surface, that a rare bird 

 may come and go year after year without being observed by any 

 one. But that Scandinavia is much richer than Britain both in 

 species and individuals during the breeding season may be easily 

 supposed when we consider the vast extent of wild uninhabited 

 country abounding in suitable localities for the wilder, and to the 

 British fauna, rarer species of birds, whose shy and retired habits 

 lead them to seek more secluded and secure breeding haunts than 

 any part of Great Britain can afford. We find, therefore, that out 



