206 APPENDIX. No. Ill 



No. III. 

 ORNITHOLOGY} 

 By Henry W. Feilden, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 



The species of birds met with by the Arctic Expedition in 

 Smith Sound and northward, between the seventy-eighth 

 and eighty-third degrees of north latitude, are well known 

 Polar forms, and the chief interest lies in the record of their 

 great northern extension in the western hemisphere. The 

 only other part of the globe lying within nearly the same 

 parallels of latitude with which we are well acquainted is 

 Spitsbergen ; and though that group of islands has been 

 frequently visited by naturalists, yet the number of species 

 of birds, including stragglers, at present known to have 

 occurred there is under thirty. Were I to include in this 

 list species recorded by Dr. Bessels 2 from Thank God 

 Harbour, not met with by me, the list of the avifauna of 

 Smith Sound and Spitsbergen would be about numerically 

 equal : thus according, as far as numbers are concerned, with 

 the opinion published before the Expedition left England by 

 Professor Newton 3 of Cambridge ; and, except amongst those 



1 Condensed from < The Ibis/ 1877, pp. 401-412. 



2 < Bulletin de la Societe de Geographie,' 1875, pp. 296-297. 

 Twenty-three species are iucluded by Dr. Bessels in this list from Hall 

 Land. Of these, three species, Tringa maritima, Xema Sabini, and 

 Stercorarius parasiticus (Baird), were not obtained by me. On the other 

 hand four species, viz. : ALgialitis hiaticula, Phalaropus fulicarius, Tringa 

 canutus, and a Colymbus, observed by me, are additional to Dr. Bessels' 

 list, thus raising the aggregate of the species recorded from Smith Sound 

 and northward, to twenty-seven. 



3 ' Arctic Manual,' p. 114, 1875. 



