Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/50

24 When running up the coast a few pairs of Grey-lag Geese were seen, also a considerable flock, presumably of this species, on a low grassy holm, before coming to the mountain peaks known as the "Seven Sisters of Alstenö." The Merganser was common in the land-locked sounds and fjords, sometimes with a string of downy mites inclose company; the Goosander I failed to identify. Ducks innumerable of many species and with crowds of young. From the deck of a steamer it was impossible to identify them, the males, too, being generally in the "eclipse" plumage. Those I succeeded beyond doubt in making out were the Hareld or Ice Duck, Common Pochard, Goldeneye, and Common Scoter. Eiders in immense numbers about the coast villages and fishing stations, semi-domesticated, and nesting in some cases at the foot of walls of houses. The Eiders are strictly preserved during the nesting season, and the "down-harvest" is a most important source of revenue to many who live on the coast and rent the various islands. I paid twenty shillings a pound (English weight) for eider-down at Bergen.

Red-throated Divers were frequently seen and the Blackthroated much less so. Altogether during the three weeks on the coast I may have seen half-a-dozen Colymbus glacialis, amongst them it is possible there may have been an example of the western-arctic C. adamsi, numerous examples of which now exist in some of the Norwegian museums; regarding this western species on the Norwegian coasts, see Prof. Collett's paper in 'The Ibis,' 1894, pp. 269–83, and plate. Of the Arctic Gulls I saw nothing, except a Glaucous Gull, a bird of the previous year on the wing, off the mouth of one of the northern harbours. When running up the coast and close in to the sides of the islands I often saw various waders on the rocks and shingle—Oystercatchers, Turnstones, Redshanks, Purple Sandpipers, Whimbrel, and Ringed Plover, were all identified. The only Tern was Sterna macrura, the Arctic Tern, very numerous in some localities. Magpies are plentiful inland, and very familiar and bold. The Grey Crow everywhere, old and young together; some of the Grey Crows in the north have the grey almost white, and in bright sunlight Ione? [sic] I thought had a rosy tinge. Ravens were in great force about all the Arctic whaling stations. At Vadsö during the eclipse, and as the gloom thickened, a pair flew to and fro over the harbour,