FIELD NOTES IN NOKWAY. 57 



by a circle of snow-covered hills, materially heightened the effect. 

 They soon flew off altogether, and, having watched them till about 

 a couple of miles off, I went to take another look at the nest. It 

 consisted of about as rnairy short willow sticks and reeds as might 

 be grasped in one hand, scattered in a loose untidy ring round 

 the eggs, which lay on the bare flat ground, there being no mate- 

 rial depression. I then went my way. The next day I took a 

 look in passing, and found the young bird quite hearty, and the 

 empty egg-shell lying near. Two days afterwards I went again 

 and found the nest deserted, and the chick dead, which I manu- 

 factured into a respectable specimen of the Crane in down. The 

 removal of the addled egg must have disturbed the minds of the 

 old birds after all, added to the fact that the nest was in the 

 most productive part of the marsh, and they must have heard 

 my gun every now and then not far off. I was, however, much 

 surprised to see the old bird rise close to the nest, about a 

 hundred yards from me ; my sudden impulse was to fire at her, 

 without any visible result. Later the same day I was about two 

 miles to the S.W. of the nest, and heard the then familiar cry of 

 the Crane still further towards Dombaas, and soon made out two 

 Cranes about half a mile or more from me, and, as they were on 

 lower ground than I, and their movements clearly visible, I lay 

 down and watched them with my glass. To my surprise their 

 spirits were so little depressed by recent events that they were 

 actually building a new nest two miles and a half from the old 

 one. I could see one of them picking up and arranging some 

 short sticks, apparently in a very fastidious way, while the other 

 stalked slowly about, with erect neck, trumpeting at intervals ; 

 every now and then the one building uttered a note also. I had 

 no doubt at the time (though I was not so certain afterwards, for 

 reasons which will appear) that the}^ were the same pair of birds 

 whose nest I had found, as I had previously remarked that their 

 two voices were pitched at an interval of " a third " apart, and I 

 remarked the same thing now. The next day we all left for 

 Hjerkinn, and I walked on in advance of the rest. When about 

 four miles from Fokstuen, the day was so hot that I sat down and 

 took a look around, and my pleasure was great to see four Cranes 

 together on an island in the midst of the valley less than half a 

 mile from the road where I was. I watched them for half an hour 

 or so, when the others came up, and noticed that whilst three of 



