Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/471

Rh wryneck; cuckoo: eagles, hawks and owls and some of their allies, and some few other forms. Then among the game birds there are ptarmigan, grouse, the famous capercaille, quail, doves, woodcock and others.

Passing to the water birds the list is still more varied. There is the gannet and two species of cormorant; several waders; swans and geese, and a variety of wild ducks, loons and divers; many snipe, plovers, sandpipers and their allies; curlew; gulls and terns, of which there are numerous species; skuas and petrels; guillemots and auks, and the puffins. In fact the ornis, as a whole, of Norway is by no means an uninteresting one, notwithstanding the fact that the majority of its representatives have been known and described for so many centuries past. With these facts before us then, it can easily be appreciated that the birds of Norway offer the photographer of such subjects almost as varied a field of bird life as he can find in the United States, and the same is true of their nests and eggs. Again, Norway is especially interesting in her topography and plant life, or flora. That this is so has led many of her bird photographers to include in their pictures more of the surroundings than is usually the case in similar productions taken in this country by American ornithologists. All the photographs illustrating the present article are good examples of this, and, in my opinion, everything else being equal, it gives them an additional value; especially as any one of them will bear enlargement either for lecture purposes or for figures.

For photography, many of the water birds offer wonderfully attractive subjects, and particularly on the coast north of Stavanger, where