152 



found specimens on the Edinburgh Isles (near Prince Charles Fore- 

 land) and five pairs in Sassen Valley on July 17. The cT cT were 

 flying here anxiously around and trilling; so they certainly bred 

 here, though no nests were found. 



Erolia maritima maritima (Brunn.), the Purple Sandpiper. 



Tringa striata (L.), Trevor Battye (1897), p. 589. 

 Tringa striata (L.), Kolthoff (1903), p. 44. 

 Arquatella maritima (Brunn.), Schalow (1904), p. 191. 

 Arquatella maritima (Brunn.), le Roi (1911), p. 164. 

 Arquatella (Tringa) maritima Brunn., Zedlitz (1911), p. 322. 



cT, shore near Cape Boheman, Aug. 16, 1921. 

 9, shore near Cape Boheman, Aug. 16, 1921. 

 cT, juv., shore near Cape Boheman, Aug. 16, 1921. 

 9, shore near Cape Boheman, Aug. 1, 1921. 



The Purple Sandpiper is the most common representative of the 

 Liynicolae in Spitsbergen. Near Icefjord it breeds in great numbers 

 on the Forelands, and on the hills between the coast and the moun- 

 tains. When I arrived near Cape Boheman on June 25, the males 

 did their courtship frequently on the wing, singing loud and beauti- 

 fully. Like the birds wintering on our shores, they are very tame 

 in their breeding quarters. 



In the last days of June — le Roi mentions the same time — 

 I found the first complete sets of eggs. They like to make their 

 simple cup-shaped nests in places, covered principally by Lichens 

 and Cassiope, or on turf-ridges. It is very difficult to distinguish 

 the eggs from the surroundings, so that they are generally found 

 only when the ynale^ for only he incubates, flies from the nest right 

 in front of us. In literature I only once found that a female was 

 breeding: „these I obtained off the eggs were loith one exception^) 

 male birds, and there can be no doubt that the greater part of 

 the hatching is done by the male (Trevor Battye (1897), p. 590). 



I will now describe my observations of a male, breeding close 

 behind our settlement near Cape Boheman, and which I could 

 therefore visit daily. 



1) Italics are mino (v. 0.). Huxley visited a nest regularly at Prince 

 Charles Foreland, and always the cf appeared to be sitting. 



