250 ARCTIC BIRDS. 



freeze. They were the Dovekie of Southern Green- 

 land, — the Uria grylle of the naturalist. They are 

 often seen about Disco Island and Upernavik in the 

 winter time, but I was much surprised to find them 

 denizens of the Arctic night so near the Pole. It was 

 a singular sight to see them paddling about in the 

 caves, under the ice-foot, at 30° below zero, uttering 

 their plaintive cry, and looking for all the world like 

 homeless children, shoeless and in rags, crouching for 

 shelter beneath a door-stoop on a bleak December 

 night. I wanted one of them badly for a specimen, 

 but it would have required something stronger than 

 the claims of science to have induced me to harm a 

 feather of their trembling little heads. 



