SUMMER RAMBLES ON THE SURENDAL FJELDS. 117 
thick bushes and low trees which there borders the 
riverside, we found two nests full of eggs placed snugly 
beneath thick horizontal 0?2£-branches, embedded amidst 
scrub of hazel and osiers, ferns and long grass. These 
nests were made of dead leaves, slightly lined with 
down. In this small patch of cover we also found a 
nest of pied flycatcher, built in a crevice of a broken 
stump, with seven eggs, almost hatching. We had 
daily observed these birds on the opposite shore, and 
they appeared to be the only pair in our part of the 
valley. There were also two nests of the garden- 
warbler, one incomplete ; while from the other I took by 
hand the old bird, so closely was she brooding her six 
eggs. In a low thicket was a redstart’s nest (seven 
eggs) ; and we also found two of willow-wren, each with 
about eight eggs; and, on the mossy shingle hard by, 
one of a sandpiper, with four eggs. We also found 
here two nests of white wagtail; and a few days after¬ 
wards one of the yellow wagtail, by the side of a 
marshy backwater, all golden with king-cups, and into 
which I was just “ towing ” a beaten salmon ; making 
no fewer than seven interesting species breeding within 
a space of a hundred yards. 
Later in the season it was a pretty sight to watch 
these mergansers with their broods about some quiet 
backwater or stream-foot, or to see the old female 
“ shooting the rapids ” with half a dozen downy 
youngsters squatting on her back. The latter seem to 
require no instruction in the arts of swimming and 
diving; they acquire both intuitively before they get 
their feathers—indeed, from the moment they reach 
the water. 
