FIELD NOTES IN NORWAY. 59 



always does) and fluttered away ; there were four eggs. On 

 another occasion, as I was going through the marsh, I heard 

 distinctly a bird snapping its bill. Going to the spot whence the 

 sound proceeded, I flushed a Great Snipe ; I fancy it was snapping 

 its bill at me. 



Common Snipe, G. c&lestis (Fr.) — I put up a pair from a small 

 marsh at Fokstuen, the only ones I saw there. I saw one at 

 Lillehammer, and heard another drumming at Hjerkinn. 



Broad-billed Sandpiper, Limicola platyrhyneha (Tern.) — 

 Pretty plentiful at Fokstuen, and just below the station at Hjer- 

 kinn. I did not find the nest, nor did the ovary of a female I 

 procured at Fokstuen lead me to suppose I should, though at 

 Hjerkinn — which, both in Ornithology and Botany, is decidedly 

 earlier than Fokstuen, although the places are, as near as possible, 

 at the same altitude (the ornithologist will do well to take Hjer- 

 kinn first) — one contained an egg which would have been laid in 

 a few days. They are not easy to shoot, as they have a perplexing 

 way of rising at your feet in a great hurry, and flying off as if 

 they meant to go for miles, and then, just as they are at a right 

 distance to kill, dropping down suddenly, and causing you to 

 shoot thereby over their heads. Tbey frequent grassy and sedgy 

 parts of the marsh where the ground is neither too wet nor the 

 vegetation too high, never being seen actually in the water or 

 amongst bushes, but where the soil is such that an ordinary 

 man's foot would sink a couple of inches into the mud at each 

 step. They lie, usually, very close, rise with a low but shrill 

 whistle, and almost invariably are in pairs ; in wet and windy 

 weather, however, like most other birds, they become very wild, 

 and I have seen them at such times go through the same motions 

 as a drumming Snipe, the descending motion with quivering wings 

 being accompanied by a high tremulous whistle. Those shot at 

 Fokstuen have a slight rufous tinge in the breast, due to the iron 

 oxide in the wet soil they frequent. 



Common Sandpiper, Totanus hypoleticus (L.) — Common by 

 every stream and lake. They made their appearance at Lille- 

 hammer on May 17th. 



Green Sandpiper, T. ochrojms (L.)— I saw several near Lille- 

 hammer and several near Laurgaard, but for some reason or other 

 I did not see it at Fokstuen in anything like the plenty I had 

 expected. 



