ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORWAY. 69 



scrambled along shore, and came to an inlet of blue-green water, 

 framed by the scorched red granite rock, and with a dazzlingly 

 white beach of broken shells and coral in places. The contrast 

 of colours made a brilliant picture. Six or eight Black Guille- 

 mots were fishing, each one going off with its fish when caught to 

 feed young. Others were certainly nesting on an islet upon 

 which we were not allowed to land, as the wooden cross and 

 watcher's hut proclaimed it an ceg-vaer, or Eider hatchery. One 

 of those seen was in the barred plumage ; can it have been a last 

 year's bird unusually late in assuming the adult dress ? 



Fratercula arctica. — Many Puffins were seen from the deck of 

 the ' Lyngen ' as we ran across from Kvitnaes on the Vanno to 

 the mouth of Lyngen Fjord. 



Colymbus arcticus. — We rarely met with a lake or pool of any 

 size that had not a pair of Divers upon it, usually followed by 

 their two young ones in the down. On the 14th we saw three 

 settle upon the Praestvand, the lake in the woods behind Tromso 

 which supplies the town with water. At Skjervo they were con- 

 stantly passing to and fro, uttering harsh cries while on the wing. 

 As we watched the midnight sun a fine pair of Black-throated 

 Divers with their young floated upon a pool just below us. 

 Probably a dozen places were found where trampled water-weeds 

 and pieces of egg-shell showed that young had been hatched. 

 One pair had bred at the Kvalo pools. Others were seen near 

 Svolvaer; one pair near Oos on the 25th had well-grown young. 



C. septentrionalis. — The Eed-throated Diver was not less 

 numerous. Three were wailing in the inner bay as we landed at 

 Skjervo on the 17th. As we came to one of the small sheets of 

 water amongst the birch-clad hills, a pair were much excited, 

 barking and rushing about the pool. We took this as an in- 

 dication of eggs or young, but on returning an hour later the 

 birds were gone. On the 19th we came across a string of lake- 

 lets in the woods towards the northern end of Tromso Island. 

 Upon the uppermost one floated a fine pair of Red-throated 

 Divers amongst the flowers of the small yellow water-lily (Nuphar 

 pumilum). They must have had young, as before taking flight 

 they swam up to within twenty yards of us, and we could not but 

 wonder how long they would survive if guilty of such temerity in 

 less unsophisticated latitudes. A pair had a single young one at 



