NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 65 



Akerloe, a fort of fmall Bird, which in the Spring appears on Akerioe. 

 plowed land, and picks up the worms ; they look a good deal 

 like a Heiloe, (which fhall be hereafter noticed) but they are 

 fomething lefs. 



AkerRixe, or Vagtel Konge, are called here by fome Ager-AkerRixe, 

 Hone, tho' it muft not be taken for the Bird to which we give 

 that name in Denmark ; for fuch fort of Ager-Hons are not found 

 in Norway as I know of *. It is made a good deal like a Sneppe, 

 brownifh, with a pretty longifh neck and legs, but of the 

 bignefs of a Kramsfugl ; its flefh is white, and of a delicate tafle. 



When the corn is high enough for them to hide themfelves 

 in, then they'll flay and hatch their young ones there; with then; 

 bill they make a kind of noife like {d.w'mg or cutting fomething 

 hard, which is called to rixe, and from thence the Bird has 

 its name. 



A Hike, Kaa, Kaye, Kaage, Monedula, the Jackdaw, fomething Aiuke. i 

 like a fmall Crow, is called alfo Cornix Garrula, becaufe they can 

 be taught to fpeak a few words ) this Bird builds high, and 

 gathers in great flights together : by the name they may be 

 eafily confounded with the following, tho' they are very different 

 from it. 



Alk; this is a Bird peculiar to this country, and for its feathers Aifc. 

 very ufeful ; 'tis as big as a large duck, but narrower in the breaft ; 

 the legs {land clofer together, and the wings are lefs. They are 

 diflinguifhed into two forts by the beak ; it is on fome longifh 

 and narrow ; in others thick, fhort, and bent on the back ; it is 

 black, excepting at the ends of the wings and tail, which are 

 white, as well as all underneath ; and from the eyes there goes a 

 white flripe all down the neckf. They can fifh and fwini 

 beyond many other, but are very weak at flying or walking, 

 becaufe the legs are as if they were upon the rump ; fo very fas 

 behind, that it is troublefome to move them on land ; the Bird 

 therefore totters like a drunken man : on this account is the, 

 faying, He is as drunk as an Alk. The wings are of no great; 

 ufe, and for that reafon it is eafily taken on the nefl. They 

 always build by the fea-fide, on the highefl and fleepefl rocks ok 



* P. S. I am juft informed by a good friend, that till about twenty years fince there 

 never were feen any Ager-hons in this country ; about that time they appeared like a 

 colony, moil likely from Bahus-Lehn in Sweden, and perhaps firft from Skaane. 

 Thefe fixed themfelves here and in Smaalehnene, and fo on farther quite to Chriftiana, 

 and fpread themfelves •, particularly after they were as it were taken into protection, by 

 the king's order, and had three years privileges from being deftroyed. 



-f The Alk's bill is particularly defcribed by Frid. Martens, in his Spitzbergenfke 

 Travels, cap. ii, p. 64, & feq. where it appears under the name of Papagey- 

 Taucher. 



Part. II. S cliffs, 



