ELK HUNTING 
the most interesting birds are migratory and are gone before the first 
suspicion of winter. 
In Norway this autumnal migration takes place several weeks earlier 
than on our own shores, probably owing to the fact that the birds them- 
selves know how suddenly winter in the northern wilds envelops the 
land with a mantle of snow, beneath which is buried all fruit and insect 
life. In the British Islands, the change of season being more gradual, 
the summer birds are in no such hurry to take their departure. Here, 
too, insect life is fairly abundant till the end of October, whereas in 
Northern Norway winter in all its severity often sets in about the first of 
that month. The resident birds commonly seen there and on the ad- 
jacent coast are, however, of sufficient interest to repay study by the 
ornithologist. 
On a journey up the coast in August last I noticed off Aalesund three 
or four specimens of the somewhat rare Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus ), 
a bird I had not previously met with in Europe. In flight and general 
habits it closely resembles the common Shearwater, and, were it not 
for its characteristic flight, might also be mistaken at a distance for the 
dark variety of Richardson’s Skua. 
Near the mouths of some of the large fjords, where the small whales 
and the big saithe and pollack had been chasing to the surface vast shoals 
of herring, we saw enormous flocks of common kittiwake, and lesser black - 
back gulls, whilst here and there amongst them dashed those bold little 
pirates, Richardson’s skuas, the dark variety apparently predominating 
in numbers. Off Hitteren we caught sight of the first flocks of eider duck 
with their young, and old male eiders in bachelor parties. Here, too, 
close to the northern landing-stage, were two fine flocks of the velvet -scoter 
((Edemia fusca). These birds interested me much, the more so as I noticed 
that, contrary to the habit of other members of Anatidse at this season, 
the old males mixed indiscriminately with the females and young. Whilst 
I was watching the velvet -scoters through a telescope, Mr Lodge obtained 
his first view of the white -tailed eagle (an immature specimen), which 
came flying low along the seashore. 
Bird life is remarkably scarce in the neighbourhood of both Trondhjem 
and Namsos; but at the mouth of the Namsen we saw numbers of mag- 
pies, hooded crows, white wagtails, and br amblings, a few northern 
marsh tits and willow warblers, and a three -toed woodpecker. In a drive 
of nearly 100 miles up this beautiful river, with its low-lying woods and 
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