150 



but when a few days later I saw the hen on the nest, it appeared 

 that she sat so closely that I could come quite near her, without 

 her flying away (fig. 6, plate II and fig. 8, plate III). When I ap- 

 proached her from a distance, she stretched her neck over the 

 water's surface so as to be less visible. Later on, when the water 

 in the lake had sunk, she still showed the same attitude, which 

 now did not protect her (fig. 7, plate II), however. 



When I came close to her, she uttered an anxious plaintive 

 call or a guttural sound, with open bill and raised neck. Some days 

 after I had found the nest she laid a second egg. As far as I could 

 ascertain only the female was incubating. The male was not often 

 in the vicinity, except in the first days of incubation and when the 

 young were expected to hatch off. She sat so closely that I had 

 to stir her with my foot to see, whether she had eggs or chickens. 

 Being driven from the nest, which could be done with much trouble 

 only, she did not fly away^but attacked furiously while swimming (fig. 9, 

 plate III). Because I wanted to know the duration of the incubation- 

 period, I visited her daily in early August: on Aug. 2 only one 

 egg appeared to be in the nest; the other lay beside it, broken and 

 contained no embryo. How it had been removed I have not found. 

 Perhaps it had been robbed by one of the Skua's, which were always 

 in the neighbourhood in search of King-Eider ducklings or by one ot 

 our dogs, which always wandered in the tundra for the same purpose. 

 The remaining egg was further incubated by the female. On Aug. 3 

 I took several photos of the bird on the nest and of the bird 

 attacking a man, after it had been driven from the nest. After the 

 attack she immediately returned to it (fig. 10, plate IV). 



On Aug. 10, after more than 5 weeks of incubation the nest was 

 abandoned. Now it appeared that the second egg contained no 

 embryo either. 



Near Wahlenberg Glacier, in a freshwater-lake, I saw another pair 

 of divers with one newly-hatched chicken on Aug. 1. 



On July 30 in the tundra I observed a male or female, which 

 on my approaching uttered the same plaintive calls, which I had 

 heard from the female bird above described. So I supposed that I 

 was in the neighbourhood of a nest, but I could not find anything 

 in that loch. When I came nearer the bird flew away. 



Near the Anser Isles we also saw a pair of divers (O.E., July 17). 

 When I left Cape Boheman in the last days of August, there were 

 still some specimens. 



