1 70 Messrs. Evans and Sturge on the 



most unfortunately, as it turned out, only preserved the skin of 

 one (a female) specimen. This has since been submitted to 

 John Gouldj and that celebrated ornithologist, being convinced 

 of its specific distinctness from any other known species of the 

 genus, has described it in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London ' for 1858 (p. 354) under the name of Lago- 

 pus hemileucurns. It is therefore unnecessary for us to give a 

 detailed account of this nevv^ European bird ; we need only say 

 that it can be at once distinguished from the Common Ptar- 

 migan {L. mutus, Leach) of Great Britain and Scandinavia by 

 its much larger size, which fully equals that of the Willow 

 Grouse {L. albus, Bp.), and from this again by its tail, the 

 basal half of which is white. The general plumage of the 

 female in summer much resembles that of the female Common 

 Ptarmigan at the same time. All the males we saw were still 

 in the winter dress, though their white feathers had become very 

 dirty ; but the females had changed. In the same neighbour- 

 hood one of us found a nest of this bird — if nest it could be 

 called, being formed only of a few long stems of dry grass bent 

 down in a trench-like hollow in the ban-en fjeld (or high table- 

 land), where the snow had been thawed, or pei'haps been blown 

 away, which latter might have been the case, so bleak and ex- 

 posed was the situation. There were two eggs, which resemble 

 those of others of the genus. One of them measures 1'6 inch 

 in length by 1'22 inch in transverse diameter. We trust that 

 any future visitors to Spitzbergen will not fail to bring back a 

 large series of these birds, and especially to observe whether 

 their voice or habits differ in any respect from those of the 

 common species, and whether, too, this latter may not be found 

 there as well. 



Besides the birds we have before mentioned as occurring 

 here, we saw some Arctic Terns, and a few Snow Buntings 

 {Plectrophanes nivalis, Mey.). Observing a great many Little 

 Auks flying in and out of the cliffs, we took our wire-rope, 

 and one of us was let down the precipice ; but both they and the 

 Black Guillemots built in such deep and narrow crevices, that it 

 was only after much hard labour in picking and breaking the 

 rock with a hammer that the hand could be inserted. In this 



