166 Messrs. Evans and Sturge on the 



copied by Mr. Yarrell in his last edition above mentioned. Now, 

 at the time I first read it, I had a suspicion that there was some 

 mistake here, which further inquiries have much tended to 

 strengthen ; but as the author of the paper (Mr. J. J. Briggs) 

 has kindly undertaken to pursue the subject further, I need say 

 no moi'e about it, beyond expressing my full conviction that the 

 birds in question will be found to have been the North-American 

 Wood, Carolina, or Summer Duck {Aix sponsa, Boie), which, as 

 is well known, will breed freely in this country, and whose 

 beautifully varied plumage causes it to be often called by dealers 

 by the name rightfully belonging to that species which is the 

 subject of my somewhat lengthy remarks. 



XVIII. — Notes on the Birds of Western Spitzbergen,, as observed 

 in 1855. By Edward Evans and Wilson Sturge. 



Partly inspired by a love of Natural History, but more by a 

 desire for adventure, we were induced to visit Spitzbergen in 

 the summer of 1855, before a trip to that island was so common 

 as it seems likely now to become ; and though we were somewhat 

 disappointed in not finding it so rich in ornithology as we had 

 expected, a short notice of the species we observed there may not 

 be unacceptable to the readers of ' The Ibis,^ as we believe that 

 hitherto the only published account of the birds of this, the 

 most northern known land of the Old World, is that contained 

 in the Zoological Appendix to Parry^s Fourth Voyage, by James 

 Clarke Ross*. 



Our vessel, the ' Anna,' was a fishing-smack of 30 tons 

 register, a fast boat; and had it not been for calms, adverse 

 gales, and fields of ice, we might, with a fair breeze, have easily 

 made the run from Hammerfest (in the north of Norway), our 

 port of departure, in three or four days. But at Bear Island the 

 ice forced us to make a circuit of upwards of sixty miles ; thus 

 we were retracing our course almost the only time that we had 



* Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in Boats fitted for 

 the purpose, and attached to His Majesty's Ship ' Hecla,' in the Year 

 1827, under the Command of Captain William Edward Parry, R.N., 

 F.R.S. London, 1828. 



