ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORWAY. 57 



mountains gave place to gentle slopes green with grass and 

 feathery birch wood. We had seen nothing so verdant for hun- 

 dreds of miles. There was moss-fjeld with melting snow patches 

 aloft. A flock of Arctic Terns was fishing in the channel, and a 

 Skua in mottled plumage passed us. In the course of the 

 morning we landed at Tromso, after just a week of travelling. 

 Ten days were spent there, three of them being occupied by a 

 trip to the Lyngen Fjord, where ice-clad mountains, separated by 

 glaciers and snow-filled gorges, rise from the water's edge to a 

 height of between five and six thousand feet. The small hours 

 of an extremely wet morning were spent on shore at Lyngseidet ; 

 while, by taking advantage of the fact that the boat calls twice at 

 Skjervo, we were able to spend rather more than twelve hours 

 upon that island, which lies just north of lat. 70°. On July 21st 

 we left Tromso in the ' Rost.' Next day we got two or three 

 hours ashore at Stokmarknaes while stopping to coal. The 

 Raftsund, grandest of the Lofoten straits, was traversed, and 

 Svolvaer reached on the evening of the 22nd. Three days were 

 spent in making excursions in the neighbourhood of Svolvaer, 

 and we finally left for Trondhjem and Bergen on the 26th. Much 

 time was lost in steamboat travelling, or the following list might 

 have been somewhat extended. 



Cyanecula suecica. — We met with the Red-spotted Bluethroat 

 frequently in the willow swamps. Apart from the slight differ 

 ence in plumage, it appeared to be the counterpart of the white- 

 spotted form which I had met with on the Rhine, though, as the 

 males had ceased singing, I had no opportunity of comparing the 

 songs of the two species. The females showed themselves more 

 freely than those of C. wolfi, which, in my experience, are given 

 to skulking. Skjervo appeared well suited to this species, as in 

 moist hollows amongst willows and birches on the rocky slopes 

 beyond the village we saw representatives of three pairs. On 

 July 15th, in the Tromsdal, some distance below the Lapp 

 encampment, a pair of Bluethroats scolded from willows by the 

 stream. With them were the young ones, which had not long 

 left the nest. They reminded one of young Stonechats or 

 Robins, but were more richly coloured. On the 24th we saw a 

 similar family amongst birch scrub a short distance inland from 

 Svolvaer. 



