PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 11 



mice, yellow bunting, sparrow, bullfinch, a few 

 redwing and fieldfare, and a diving duck or two, 

 if there be any open water. And we may notice 

 three others, whose slender frames appear ill fitted 

 to withstand the rigours of a northern winter, but 

 which I have seen in the Wermland forests during 

 the severest weather — the tree-creeper, the wren, 

 and the gold-crest. "Why these little stragglers 

 should remain behind, after all their glad com- 

 panions of summer have flitted to warmer climes, 

 has always been a mystery to me. Some few 

 species, such as the hen harrier, the pigmy curlew, 

 the knot, the sanderling, the bernacle goose, the 

 brent, and the grey plover, have not yet, in my 

 knowledge, been detected breeding in any part of 

 Scandinavia, but are only seen during their migra- 

 tions, as it is supposed, to and from more north- 

 easterly latitudes ; but as I have shot the grey 

 plover, the knot, and the pigmy curlew, on the 

 southern coast of Skania, very early in August, in 

 full summer dress, as well as birds of the year, 

 there is every reason to suppose that these indi- 

 viduals had bred somewhere on this continent. 

 With the exception of, perhaps, a rare sea-fowl, 

 whose peculiar home is in high northern latitudes, 

 there are no regular winter migrants to Scandi- 

 navia. 



Some birds are becoming yearly more scarce 



