352 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



AVES. 



Birds in the Valley of the Namsen. — The Namdaleners — and, 

 indeed, all Norwegians — take great care of their birds, except those 

 that are inimical to their interests ; so that one derives immense 

 pleasure in roaming through the fir-woods and alder-bushes by the 

 river side. The birds are so tame — Magpies and Hooded Crows 

 especially — that one experiences quite a new joy in being able to 

 observe their characters and habits so near at hand. Then again we 

 experience once more the youthful thrill of delight on finding such 

 nests as those of the Fieldfare and Redwing, winter visitants whose 

 breeding haunts and habits have always hung dimly in the regions of 

 mystery. The above-mentioned Crows abounded ; I counted sixty 

 Hoodies crossing the river together as they flapped away to roost ; and, 

 indeed, became an unmitigated nuisance in the early morning, when 

 they held high parliament outside my bedroom window. Hazel-grouse 

 (yerpe) flushed in desultory coveys like Partridges from the alders and 

 fir trees ; and once, while speeding through the lovely fern-clad, moss- 

 carpeted pine woods to the daily Salmon fishing, I happed into the 

 very midst of a splendid covey of Capercailie, quite tame, within ten 

 yards, and they simply whirred heavily away into the nearest fir 

 trees, not in the least alarmed. The monotony of broad still river 

 was relieved by many pairs of Mergansers passing up and down, or in 

 the evening shooting out across the stream, with their trip of downy- 

 lings, to the shallows on the opposite shore, where they will eat 

 Salmon-parr to their hearts' content. Black-throated Divers, too, 

 were there in plenty, very busy fishing, and mewling over their ill- 

 fortune, or flying away with weird croakings to their romantic breeding 

 haunts far away in the hills. It seems a pity that government grants 

 are offered for all these birds, though I am bound to confess that I 

 took six Salmon-parr, two inches long, from the throat of one little 

 " 'Ganzer." Fortunately, however, the one croner offered, in the case 

 of the Divers, takes a deal of earning. It cost me ten, and I failed to 

 secure the government grant after all. A price is set, too, upon all 

 birds of prey, the unhappy Buzzards, which do no harm to the farmers 



