194 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



From Mr J. E. Salvesen I first learned, through the 

 kindness of Mr T. Tait of Inverurie, that the summer of 192 1 

 had been notorious in Norway for its lack of wild berries, 

 upon which Waxwings feed. While shooting in Sevallen, 

 in Osterdalen, he noted particularly the absence of cran- 

 berries, cowberries, blaeberries, and wortleberries, which were 

 formerly abundant there, and the absence of which was 

 attributed by the peasants and others to the "severe pro- 

 tracted drought and cold spring." Although, during his 

 autumn visit, the Waxwings would not yet have been on 

 the move, the effect of the berry failure was already reflected 

 on bird life, for at Sevallen, where previously good bags had 

 been obtained, game was practically non-existent. And 

 most other sportsmen met by Mr Salvesen had had a 

 similar experience. 



On learning these facts, and in order to discover how 

 far these conditions had been general in Norway, I made 

 further enquiry, of Lord Salvesen, whose interest in bird 

 life is well known, and who visits annually his shooting in 

 another part of the country, at Aaseral in South Norway. 

 Lord Salvesen's evidence bears directly on our enquiry, 

 and I quote from his letter : — " I can entirely corroborate 

 my cousin's statements. The wild berry crop in Norway 

 was an entire failure, due to hard frosts in June. I have 

 never known anything similar in my experience of forty 

 years of Norway. I should say there was not one per cent, 

 of the ordinary crop on the hills on which I shoot, and I 

 heard the same accounts from all parts of the country. It 

 was a poor season also for Grouse, due, I believe, to the 

 same frosts as killed the blossom. My own experience was 

 that the birds were about half the usual stock, but accounts 

 from other districts were much worse." 



Here, then, in an unwonted scarcity of food, lies the 

 primary cause of the mass movement of such Waxwings 

 as occurred in western Scandinavia. We can now picture 

 with some accuracy the migrations of the Waxwings in 

 Norway. I have already stated that their migratory move- 

 ments on land appear to consist of comparatively short 

 flights in search of food. The birds which bred in northern 



