2946 Birds. 



the hoarse and loud laugh of some strange hird. In an instant I had 

 leaped from my carriole, and seizing my gun (which always swung 

 loaded at my side) , with an admonitory ' pur 'r 'r 'r ' to my horse, 

 which in the Norsk language signifies ' stand still,' and which he 

 always understood and generally obeyed, I soon dashed into the forest 

 in pursuit of this bird with the unknown voice. I had not advanced 

 far before the same sound broke upon me again, and this time a very 

 little way off. This was immediately followed by a loud tapping, and 

 a few steps more brought to my delighted eyes a great black wood- 

 pecker, with his blood-redhead, gradually ascending the bole of a fir. 

 I watched him for some time, as, with his strong, bristly tail firmly 

 placed against the tree, and his feet clinging to the bark, he hammered 

 away most audibly with his large, powerful beak. As it was impos- 

 sible from the lack of underwood to get nearer him unobserved, I fired 

 from a long distance, and the only result, to my great disappointment, 

 was to scatter the ground with the black feathers of his back, and to 

 send him screaming through the forest. I was soon wading through 

 bog, mud and water in pursuit. Several times I caught a glimpse of 

 him and another (probably his mate) as they flew before me among the 

 trees. At length I saw one of them fly to the trunk of a fir, and now 

 by a little manoeuvring I approached him unobserved, and this time he 

 did not escape me. I never saw birds fly more heavily, or with such 

 apparent labour and such clumsy motion, as these great black wood- 

 peckers. In skinning this bird, I was surprised to find the head so 

 large that it was quite impossible to pass it through the neck after the 

 ordinary manner, and I was obliged to make an incision in the skin 

 at the back of the neck, as is done with owls, &c. I have never found 

 the same difficulty with the green woodpecker (Picus viridis) or the 

 great spotted woodpecker [Picus major), both of which I have stuffed. 



Lesser Spotted Woodpecker [Picus minor). This bird has never 

 come under my observation but once, and that too was in the forest 

 of the Glommen, so favorable for birds generally, and especially for 

 shy, solitary and retiring birds, as woodpeckers are known to be. 

 This pretty little woodpecker flew across the road, just in front of my 

 carriole, in a tolerably open part of the forest. Of course I was soon 

 in pursuit with my gun, and I caught sight of him as he was tapping the 

 topmost branch of a half-decayed fir : alas! he too caught sight of me, 

 and away he went among the trees, and though I searched most dili- 

 gently for some time, I could not find him again. 



Egg of the Fieldfare {Turdus pilaris). By the time I reached 

 Norway (the beginning of June) the season was too far advanced to 



