AN ORNITHOLOGICAL TOUR IN NORWAY. 421 



what the singer was. Two birds were singing from a group of 

 pines and other trees on the backbone of the promontory, and it 

 was not difficult to localize their position roughly. But the 

 difficulty of exactly localizing a monotonous and more or less 

 highly pitched sound is notorious. My wife took one bird in 

 hand and I the other, but so closely did they sit that I should 

 think for five minutes or more I could not see mine. At last he 

 left his perch, apparently from the very spot I had been looking 

 at, and flew down into a weedy stubble not yet ploughed. I 

 flushed him, and he went back to his old perch ; and then in a 

 few minutes I made out a male Ortolan, his chestnut under-parts 

 conspicuous in the clear light. Meanwhile my wife had found 

 the other. They were both perched on a pine branchlet near the 

 top of the tree, and were quite exposed ; and it seemed surprising 

 that they were not seen at once. But their habit of sitting quite 

 still is their protection. The next day we saw a good many, and 

 they are evidently quite common in that district, though I saw 

 none anywhere else in Norway. The song, usually delivered 

 from a bough near the top of a tree, but sometimes from the top 

 of one of the tall upright fence-posts, is sweet, leisurely, and 

 mellow. It consists of about four notes, " che che che che " 

 (sweet and high), and then a soft, low "twoh." Sometimes, how- 

 ever, it is varied thus: "Twee twee twee" (low), " chi chi " 

 (high), and then the soft "twoh." I have noticed that in different 

 individual Yellow Buntings their song is varied in much the same 

 way, i. e. some birds sing the first part high and the second 

 low, and others vice versa. But, so far as I have noticed, the 

 individual Yellow Buntings are consistent, i. e. one bird sings in 

 one way only, whereas one of the Ortolans I listened to sang 

 both variations. Each time the Ortolan sings its strain it lifts 

 its head up. The Ortolan is a very sluggish bird, and wherever 

 it may choose its perch, there it will sit and sing its song over 

 and over again ; if disturbed it will often return to the exact 

 spot. The song is thoroughly characteristic of the bird — sleepy, 

 soothing, and rather melancholy ; but it is a sweet song, and the 

 most melodious Bunting's song I have heard, save that of the 

 Saharan Bunting. 



Sturnns vulgaris. — At Christian sand. Fairly common, but 

 not so noticeable as in places further north. 



Pica rustica.— Absurdly tame. At Christiansand they were 



