320 
WILD NORWAY. 
Nearer at hand the foreshore was lined with grey 
geese, to one of which, evidently a “ pensioner,” we got 
near enough to identify it as Anser brachyrhynchus. The 
geese swarm here in autumn and early spring, for the 
plain was covered with their feathers, footmarks, etc. 
Everywhere droves of big webbed feet had traversed the 
mud-flats. We also picked up the remains of a pochard 
drake and a scoter, and observed many sheld-ducks, 
pintails, etc. 
Though the salt-grass was plentifully sprinkled with 
nests of Terns ( S . Jluvicitilis ), Redshank, Dunlin, and 
Peewit—yet it was long before we fell in with anything 
better. At last A. walked into our first Reeve’s nest, 
.containing two of her eggs, with one of a Redshank. 
Next the three clay-coloured eggs of an Avocet were 
discovered, lying on almost bare grass, and we proceeded 
to walk out across dry marsh and shallows to some 
islands about a mile from the shore. Thereon, from 
afar, we perceived the now familiar spectacle of a “ ruff- 
stand” on a thistleyridge, just beyond which, on our land¬ 
ing, a Pintail rose from her nest of eight eggs in a hollow 
of the grass. A survey with the glasses having shown 
both Mallard and Pintail drakes feeding on the oozes 
hard by, we commenced a careful search, and soon my 
eye caught that of a duck squatting low in a hole among 
the grass, not five yards away. An endeavour to pin 
her down on the nest with the gun-barrels only resulted 
in breaking several eggs, hence the hateful necessity of 
shooting one old duck as she shuffled along the ground, 
more like a wounded hare than a bird, for complete 
identification. In all, we found on these islands about 
,a dozen Pintails’ nests with eight to ten eggs each, all 
