NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 87 



a day f « The Lund lays but one egg at a time, which is as 

 big again as one would imagine, in proportion to the bignefs of 

 its body ; and is of a brownifh colour. If this be taken away 

 from her, then fhe lays another, but has hardly time to rear the 

 young one to perfection by bringing it fiflh, fo that they com- 

 monly perifh ; and the mother follows the flight when the time 

 comes, namely, jufh before, or juft after Olai day, when they 

 all together leave thefe parts, after having been here from the 

 beginning of the month of April. What time they remain in 

 Nordland, particularly on Roll and Vasroen, where they are 

 found in the greateft numbers ; or whether they winter there, I 

 do not know. They are a very cleanly Bird, for when they 

 leave their neft, they clean it, and fcrape away all the foulnefs j 

 and then ftrew grafs over it, that they may find it the next year. 

 in proper order : they are very valuable for their feathers, which 

 are exported, particularly from Nordland, in vaft quantities, and 

 bear a very good price : they are reckoned the next in good- 

 nefs and foftnefs to the Edderfugl -|-, Mr. Peder Dafs defcribes 

 this Bird, in his Nordland Trompet, p. 82, pretty fully; and 

 Franc. Willughbeius, who fpeaking of the Scotch Iflands, where 

 this Bird, together with many other of the Sea-Birds belonging to 

 this country are found, fays, that when there happens on their 

 paffage in the Autumn, to come ftormy and bad weather, fo that 

 they cannot move away, many perifh with hunger and fatigue, 

 and are found dead in heaps by the fifhing-men : there have 

 been found alfo fome of them under water, feemingly as if afleep, 

 or in a flate of infenfibility 5 and when drawn up by the fifher- 

 men, has come to itfelfj and flew to land again. From this one 

 may conclude that the Lunden, like the Swallow, may lie in. a 

 trance, or ftate of infenfibility, under the water. See Ornitholog. 

 Lib. iii. cap. v. p. 245. 



SECT. III. 



The Maage or Gull, called here Maafe, is a well-known Strand- Maage. 

 Bird of various fpecies, yet all of one genus ; for they all live 

 upon fmall fifh, infecls, fea-weeds, or the like, indeed on any 



* This circumftance makes me almoft think that our Norvegian Lund is not fo 

 fagacious by day as by night. It is, without doubt, the fame Bird that Pere Labat 

 defcribes in his Voyage aux IQes de l'Amerique, Tom. ii. p. 349. calling it Diable or 

 Diablotin -, the other properties, as alfo his time of departing from his abode, and the 

 trouble he gives to catch him in the cracks of the fteep rocks, all agree. 



f Many of the Nordland farmers, that have mares in a rock, make it their chief 

 maintenance, and even grow rich and confiderable in their ftation, if they keep many 

 dogs ; tho' their neighbours will take care that they mail not, by keeping too many, 

 deprive them of their advantages j neither is this fuffered by the government. 



thing 



