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ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORWAY. 

 By John Benson, M.A. 



Remakks are frequently heard among visitors to Norway to 

 the effect that they have been surprised to see and hear so few 

 birds there. This may to some extent be explained by the fact 

 that the majority of persons visit that country late in the summer, 

 in July and August, when most birds have young and are there- 

 fore comparatively silent, or have already started on their return 

 journey. But let any one walk in the woods, or on the hillsides 

 in the latter half of May, or the first part of June, and he will 

 probably be astonished at the variety of bird-music that he will 

 hear day and night. The Song Thrush, Redwing, Ring Ouzel, 

 Willow Warbler, Tree Pipit, and Wren are indefatigable songsters, 

 and are joined later by the Blackcap and Garden Warbler, while 

 the chorus is swelled by the Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Brambling, 

 Chaffinch, Yellow Bunting, and Cuckoo. 



This year I had the good fortune to be in Norway from the 

 17th of May to the 6th of July, and though my range of obser- 

 vation was limited, and a good share of my time was devoted to 

 fishing, I met with fifty-eight species of the feathered tribe. 

 This was on the west side of the country between latitudes 

 60° and 61°, that is, on a level with the Shetlands, some thirty 

 English miles farther north than Bergen, and about fifty miles 

 distant from it as the crow flies. I was staying at Framnaes on 

 the Opheim lake between the Hardanger and Sogne Fjords, but 

 considerably nearer the latter. This lake lies at a thousand feet 

 above sea-level, and is surrounded by mountains, some of which 

 rise another 2000 or 3000 feet, and are cut into by a succession 

 of narrow valleys. These hills up to a certain height are well 

 wooded, chiefly with pine and birch, though the alder is fairly 

 plentiful. Above the level of the woods is a tract of low-growing 

 and stunted junipers, willow-scrub, and dwarf-birches ; while on 

 the mountain tops the only vegetation to be found between the 

 snow-patches consists of mosses, lichens, and creeping plants. 

 High up among these hills nestle a number of small tarns, many 

 of which are not clear of ice until the beginning of June, and 

 some not till much later. The Opheim lake itself had had ice 

 upon it till about a week before I arrived. As may be supposed, 



