ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORWAY. 07 



jEgialitis hiaticula. — On July 14th a boy showed us a Kinged 

 Plover's nest with four eggs on the shingle at Grindo. On the 

 20th there were several of these birds about the beach at Tisnaes. 



Hcematopus ostralegus. — Oystercatchers were very noisy about 

 the rocky point at the north end of Grindo. They had made 

 many nest hollows on the beach, which was here entirely com- 

 posed of broken shell, with bits of coral and of calcareous 

 sponges. On the 17th, near Lyngseidet, a vociferous pair must 

 have had young ones hidden close at hand. Others were feeding 

 with Curlew on the mud-flats. We saw Oystercatchers on the 

 23rd on a little island off Svolvaer. 



Sterna macrura. — On July 16th, just before the * Lyngen ' 

 touched at Finkroken, on the Reino. we passed a little island 

 upon which a large colony of Arctic Terns was nesting. They 

 filled the air like snowflakes. Others were seen on the 23rd 

 during a boating excursion off Svolvaer. 



Larus marinus. — A few Great Black-backs were seen. On 

 the 23rd I noted a pair about an ag-vaer, or Eider hatchery, off 

 Svolvaer. 



L. fuscus. — A few Lesser Black-backed Gulls were breeding 

 in company with the next species about the far side of Tromso 

 Island. The higher part of Skjervo Island, very rough ground, 

 all crowberry and rock, was a gullery of these two species. Here 

 on the 17th we caught three young birds of different ages, two 

 of them nearly ready to fly. Others had already gone down to 

 the beach. 



L. argentatus. — Herring Gulls were very numerous on the 

 17th at Lyngseidet, where in the early morning they were pil- 

 fering split fish from the drying rails. The shore was littered 

 with cod-heads and backbones, the usual refuse of a Norwegian 

 fishing village. On the 18th we touched at the whaling station 

 of Skaaro. Eleven freshly-killed Whales were floating at anchor 

 alongside, two or three ashore were being flensed, and about a 

 dozen carcases which had been stripped were waiting to be made 

 into fish-guano. The water was covered with oil and floating 

 refuse, so that the place naturally had special attractions for 

 Gulls, which were in countless numbers. At Tromso we bought 

 two Herring Gulls' eggs of the variety mentioned by Mr. Aplin. 

 They are marked with red-brown and ash on a warm cream- 



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