60 Th. von Heuglin on the Birds of 



IX. — Notes on the Birds of Novaja Zemlia and Waigats Island. 

 By Th. VON Heuglin. 



Allow me to offer to the readers of ' The Ibis' a short account 

 of the ornithological results of my voyage to Novaja Zemlia. 

 Our steamer left Hammerfest on the 25th of July, 1871, and 

 passed Nordkyn the next day, whence we made directly for the 

 Matotschkin Shar (Matthew's Strait), where the ' Germania ' 

 anchored on the 6th of August. Our stay was prolonged to the 

 20th, as icebergs, blocking up the entrance of the Sea of Kara, 

 obliged us to go back. We lay in Kostin Shar the 23rd and 

 24th of August, and availed ourselves of the opportunity to visit 

 the lower part of the Nechwatovva river. We then proceeded to 

 Waigats Island, whence, between the 1st and 7th of September, 

 we made vain attempts to penetrate the Straits of Yugorsky and 

 Kara; for both were blocked with drift-ice. The advanced 

 state of the season detei*mined the Captain to return, as he 

 thought it impossible this year to reach the Obi, Yenisei, or 

 Taimyr. Any further exploration of Novaja Zemlia also re- 

 mained unaccomplished ; so that I had only an opportunity 

 of paying a rapid visit to the above-mentioned places of the 

 double island, the west coast of Waigats, and the mouth of the 

 Nikolskaja river, on the continent, near Yugorsky Strait. 



Notwithstanding the very limited time I had to bestow upon 

 ornithological observations and notes, the results do not seem to 

 be so inconsiderable, as shown by the following list of the birds 

 of Novaja Zemlia and Waigats. 



Reference is made at the end of Mr. Gillett's paper in ' The 

 Ibis' for 1870 (p. 309) to the ornithological notes on that 

 group of islands, published by the Academician Von Baer. In 

 the present account are included Pachtussow's reports (' Sapiski 

 des hydrographischen Departemeuts des Ministeriums,' i. 

 pp. 216-220, cf. Sporer, Novaja Semla, p. 100), containing 

 some notices of birds, but mentioned under Russian and Sa- 

 moyed names. Mr. Gillett gives twenty-eight species as observed 

 here. The species not observed by myself I here mark with 

 t before the number. 



