402 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS. — CLASS II. AVES. 



Norway ; for, in the spring, flocks innumerable appear, especially on the 

 Norwegian Isles, continue only three weeks, and then at once disapi)ear. 

 As they do not breed in Hudson's Bay, it is certain that many retreat to this 

 lust of lauds, and, totally uninhabited, to perform, in full security, the duties 

 of love, incubation, and nutrition. That they breed in Spitzbergen is very 

 proltable ; but we are assured tliat they do so in Greenland. Tliey arrive 

 there in April, and make their nests in the fissures of the rocks on the 

 mountains, in May : the outside of their nest is grass, the middle of feathers, 

 and the lining the down of the arctic fo.x. They lay five eggs, — white, 

 spotted with brown : they sing finely near their nest. 



" They arc caught Jjy the boys in autumn, when they collect near the 

 shores in great flocks, in order to migrate, and are eaten dried. 



" In Eurojic, they inhabit, during sunnner, the most naked Lajiland alps, 

 and descend in rigorous .seasons into Sweden, and fill the roads and fields, — 

 on which account the Dalecarlians call them IUic(irsfo(jul, or bad-weatlier 

 birds ; the Uplanders, IlardicarsJ'or/rl, expressive of the same. The Lap- 

 landers style them A-hdpij. Leems remarks, I know not with what founda- 

 ti(.in, that they fatten on the flowing of the tides in Finmark, and grow lean 

 on the ebb. Tlie Laplanders take them in great numbers in hair springs, 

 for tlie tables, their flesh being very delicate. 



" They seem to make the countries within the whole arctic circle their 

 summer residence, from whence they overflow the more southern countries 

 in amazing multitudes at the setting in of winter in the frigid zone. In the 

 winter of 1778—79 they came in such multitudes into ISirsa, one of the 

 Orl<ncy Islands, as to cover the ^vhoIe barony ; yet, of all the luunbers, 

 hardly two agreed in colors. 



"Ijapland, and perhaps Icc:land, furnishes the north of Britain with the 

 swarms that frecpient these jiarts during winter, as low as tlie Cheviot 

 Hills, in latitude 52° .32' ; their resting-[)laces, the Feroe Isles, Shetland, 

 and the Orkneys. Tlie Highlands of Scotland, in particular, abound with 

 them. Their flights are immense; and they mingle so closely togetjier, in 

 form of a ball, that the fowlers make great havoc among them. They arrive 

 lean, soon liecome very fat, and are delicious food. They either arrive in 

 the Highlands very early, or a few breed there; for I had one shot for me, 

 at Li\ere;uild, the 4tli of August. But there is a certainty of their migration ; 

 for multitudes of them fall, wearied with their passage, on the vessels that 

 are sailing through the Pentland Firth. 



" In their summer dress, they are sometimes seen in the south of England, 

 the climate not having severity sufficient to aflFect the colors; yet now and 

 then a milk white one appears, which is usually mistaken for a white lark. 



" Eussia and Siberia receive them in their severe seasons, annually, in 



