14 Sweden. 



I consider the British coasts, generally speaking, to be much 

 richer in the common sea birds than the southern coasts of Sweden; 

 but the wild " skargord," or rocky clusters of isles which skirt the 

 northern coasts, are the peculiar home of the seafowl, and the 

 immense swamps and morasses, and the countless inland lakes with 

 which the interior of Sweden is studded, afford secure shelter and 

 breeding places for every species of inland aquatic fowl. In the 

 very south of Sweden, where the oak, the beech, and the hazel, 

 usurp the place of the pine and fir kings of the northern forest, the 

 different species of warblers find a home as congenial to their 

 habits as the groves and plantations of England ; and as regards the 

 general fauna of this part of the country, it differs but little from 

 that of Britain. The severity of the northern winter is here little 

 felt, and the spring migrants make their appearance nearly as early 

 as in England, and generally a fortnight before they are to be seen 

 farther up the country, where the snow frequently covers the 

 ground in the end of April. 



In the midland districts, where pine and fir forests of boundless 

 extent rise on high stony ranges (intersected with plains and valleys 

 of meadow and cultivated land, and dells where the birch, the 

 juniper, and the alder vegetate in rank luxuriance), nearly every 

 species of land bird finds a congenial home ; whilst vast morasses, 

 many of which can never be traversed by the human foot, rivers, 

 and inland lagoons of every size, fringed with the reed, the bulrush, 

 and the candock, abound in every species of wader and aquatic 

 bird, which resort to the north in thousands at the breeding season. 

 It is now that the British naturalist begins to meet with rare and 

 new specimens, and it is now that the eye of the traveller first 

 gazes on the true scenery of the north and more beautiful scenery 

 than Sweden displays during the summer months it would be hard 

 to find. I have wandered over many lands, and have scarcely ever 

 seen a European landscape to vie with this. 



In the very north the appearance of the whole country becomes 

 gradually wilder and more rugged, and high mountains and barren 

 fells, covered with perennial snow, rising above the limits of vegeta- 



