3026 Birds. 



to be always on the look-out, on so remote a chance, and so we often 

 caught them napping, or something very like it. I believe the raven 

 is one of the very few birds which "never changes the colour of his 

 dress, in the icy winters of these northern countries. 



The Ring Ouzel (Turdus torquatus). The ring ouzel is by no 

 means an uncommon bird in Norway ; he delights in the copses of low 

 bushes, which clothe the sloping sides of the mountains near their 

 base, and when these copses extend down to the margin of a lake the 

 ring ouzel seems to me to have all he delights in : at any rate it is in 

 such a locality that I have most frequently seen them. The ring 

 ouzel, too, is a tamer bird in Norway than he is described to be with 

 us, though being only a summer visitant there, he must be pretty well 

 acquainted with man, and his tyranny over, or rather persecution of, 

 the feathered race. I had a great opportunity of admiring the ring 

 ouzel, and his fearlessness, when staying a few days near Skjolden, 

 not far from the foot of the highest mountain in Norway, the Skagstols- 

 Tind, whose peaks rise about 8000 feet above the level of the fjord 

 below. Many times in the course of the day a ring ouzel would, in 

 passing to and from his nest, rest for a few minutes on the turf-roof of 

 an adjacent chalet: here he would perch and turn his head round in 

 his peculiar manner, and sing a small stave, and away again on his. 

 labour of love. 



The Common Dipper (Cinclus aquaticus). A very great favourite 

 of mine is the common dipper or water ouzel : he chooses such a de- 

 lightful place for his residence, generally in the midst of splendid 

 scenery, and always amongst the rocks and banks of a rushing, roaring 

 torrent, or a clear, babbling mountain stream : the noise of the water 

 as it hurries over its rocky bed is the sweetest music to him. 1 agree 

 with him in this, and I can sit at the foot of a large water-fall, such as 

 one sees in Norway, and gaze for hours at the leaping water, as it 

 foams over the edge and plunges down, and listen to its perpetual 

 roar and bellowing as it dashes on the rocks below : but the water 

 ouzel must have more than this; he can never be happy, unless the 

 sound of his native torrent is constantly heard : he never leaves it : 

 let it wind about as it may, he will follow its meandering course, now 

 up the stream, now down, but always near the water; or he will sit on 

 a stone in the middle of the brook, and the water will splash around 

 him, and he will sing his melodious little song in the gladness of his 

 heart. As Norway is nowhere level, but divided into mountains and 

 narrow valleys, and as every valley has its clear mountain torrent, such 

 as ihe dipper loves, of course I saw them very frequently, and in great 



