404 Capt. H. W. Feiklcu on the Birds observed 



Parr some three miles north of the ship. 15th May, whilst 

 travelling up a valley (lat. 83° 40' N.) in Grinnell Land, our 

 party disturbed a Snowy Owl from the ground. Subsequently 

 this species was not unfrequently observed ; a pair seemed to 

 frequent and breed in each large valley running down to the 

 sea-shore. On the 24th June we found a nest of these birds 

 containing seven eggs (lat. 82° 33' N.) ; the nest was a mere 

 hollow scooped out of the earth, and situated on the summit 

 of an eminence which rose from the centre of the valley. 

 Several other nests were found in the vicinity of winter- 

 quarters, and at one time there were six or seven fine young- 

 birds caged on board. In the vicinity of Discovery Bay 

 (lat. 81° 44' N.) this Owl bred abundantly. During the 

 month of August, while proceeding southwards, it was no 

 uncommon circumstance to see one or more of these birds 

 occupying a conspicuous post on the bold headlands we were 

 passing under. By the end of the month all had disappeared. 

 The food of the Snowj^ Owl in Grinnell Land appears to con- 

 sist entirely of the lemming {My odes torquatus). Hundreds 

 of their cast pellets, which I picked up and examined, con- 

 sisted of the bones and fur of these little animals ; and the 

 stomachs of all I opened contained the same. 



3. Plectrophanes nivalis. Snow-Bunting. 



After passing the 78° of north latitude this species is not 

 met with in the same numbers as in the neighbourhood of 

 the Danish settlements of West Greenland, but is dispersed 

 generally along the shores of Smith Sound and the Polar 

 Basin. On the 28th August, 1875, at Shift-rudder Bay 

 (lat. 81° 52' N.), I observed a flock of about eighty, and a 

 second, in which I counted over twenty, flying south. 14th 

 September, Lieutenant Parr met with a solitary individual in 

 lat. 82° 35' N. ; and the last one I observed that season flew 

 past the ship on the 24th September. 



I first heard the note of this bird when travelling, on the 

 13th May 1876, in lat. 82° 35' N. ; the following day I ob- 

 served one ; and after that day they were frequently met with. 

 On the 27th May Lieutenant Parr, on his journey from the 



