Birds. 2981 



with their necks stretched out, as if listening. For full ten minutes 

 I continued to advance, retreat, edge first this side, then that, but to 

 no purpose : the intervening branches impeded my view : at length 

 my patience was exhausted and I fired, but I only scared them away, 

 and not another could I see, though I felt certain, the rest of the pack 

 were in the tree-tops above. 



Norwegian Jay (Garrulus infaustus). For want of a better name, 

 I call this bird the " Norwegian jay ;" he abounds in the forests of 

 Norway, and with the single exception of the bird last described (the 

 hazel hen), was the only land bird I saw in Norway which does not 

 occasionally appear in great Britain. I was wandering in a large 

 forest on the side of one of the mountains, which rises from the glo- 

 rious Romsdal, and was searching for capercailzies, and meditating 

 how I would thrust a bullet into my gun, in case we should stumble 

 upon a bear (for they abound in these mountains, and during the five 

 days we have been here, have killed two cows and severely wounded 

 two others), when the note of a strange bird suddenly sounded in ad- 

 vance. " What bird can that be ?" I exclaimed to my companion : 

 "Some kind of hawk ;" he confidently replied. "Not a bit of it," 

 said I, "no hawk ever had such a voice as that: it was more like the 

 note of a fieldfare, or perhaps a jay." Now the notes of a hawk, a- 

 fieldfare and a jay, are not exactly alike certainly; and a very casual 

 observer might distinguish between them ; but this bird's note was an 

 amalgamation of all three. We could not make it out by its note, so 

 we advanced towards the place whence the sound came : there sat the 

 owner of the voice, an ash-gray bird, with orange wings and tail : we 

 knocked him down, and examined him at our leisure. He had a 

 black head and beak, and black legs and feet, was just twelve inches 

 in length, an elegant bird, and he could erect into a crest the black 

 feathers on the top of his head. Most appropriate, indeed, was his 

 name (Garrulus infaustus), though I did not know it, till I saw it in 

 the museum at Trondhjem, for we should never have found him, had 

 he not by his unlucky chattering apprized us that he was near. I af- 

 terwards met with many of these birds in the forest : they generally- 

 go in little bands of four or five. They are the most active birds, 

 rarely stopping many moments on the same branch, but now hanging 

 from the boughs with their heads downwards, now running and hop- 

 ping from bough to bough, now perched on the ground, now arching 

 their neck and erecting their crest, and spreading out their beautiful 

 bright orange tails, they are remarkably elegant. Their flight is un- 

 dulating and graceful, but very slow ; and as the little band flies 



