WILD-LIFE IN FOREST AND FJELD. 
291 
Coming to the “ summer birds,” the redstart (as 
stated) nests earliest, rapidly followed by the whinchat 
and wheatear, white wagtail, ortolan, and pied fly¬ 
catcher, all of which are beginning to lay by May 25 th. 
The Blue-throated Warbler is typical of Norway. 
Appearing at the end of May, it has eggs (Nordmore, 
Dovre, etc.) by the second week in June. The nests 
are deep and cup-shaped, compactly built of coarse 
grasses and a few twigs outside, with finer lining, placed 
on rocky banks overhung with juniper, or on mossy 
burn-sides—such spots as are selected by the robin at 
home. The eggs—six or seven—vary from olive-green, 
uniform or zoned with reddish freckles, to plain 
brownish. In Lapland our earliest date (seven fresh 
eggs) is June 18th. 
The Bluethroat reminds one of a wren, as he pours 
forth his volume of melody—somewhat metallic—with 
tail carried high over his back. The song at times 
resembles that of the Sedge-Warbler, to which this bird 
appears akin—flying short distances on short jerky 
flight, then diving into thick scrub, amidst which it 
runs and skulks, and is altogether most difficult to 
observe. 
The Sedge-Warbler, just referred to, though abundant 
on the lower Lapland fjelds, is altogether a scarce and 
irregular species in Southern Norway—a remarkable 
circumstance in its distribution, pointing to its migration- 
route being easterly ; that is, it comes to Norway via 
Bussia and Finland, and not across the North Sea. The 
same feature is even more emphasized in the case of the 
Siberian Willow-Wren—a species otherwise unknown in 
Europe, but which abounds in Arctic Norway, evidently 
