164 



weather-beaten sandstone rocks. The birds being very tame, it was 

 possible to come quite near and to photograph them (figs. 5, plate I 

 and 11, plate IV). I could not see eggs or young, but the behaviour 

 of the old birds made me suppose that they had young. The 

 favourite attitude ot the birds was with their hinderparts resting 

 on the ground and their anterior parts held straight up, whilst the 

 head was moved in all directions. Continually they uttered a high 

 squeaking cry. When they sit straight up, the tarsi rest on the 

 ground. Seven of the eight birds were in full summer plumage, only 

 one showed dark spots on the pure white of its wings. 



The full-grown juveniles are beautifully spotted; I saw the first 

 in Icefjord on Aug. 6. 



When these Black Guillemots swim in the sea, they constantly 

 dip their bills into the water, probably to catch small pelagic or- 

 ganisms. Near Cape Boheman their food consisted principally of 

 Crustaceae and a few Molluscs. 



Mandt's Guillemot is a circumpolar bird, distinguishable from 

 the North European form chiefly by its slenderer bill. 



Plotas alle (L.), the Little Auk. 



Mergiilus alle (L.), Trevor Battye (1897), p. 599. 

 Merguliis alle (L.), Kolthoff (1903), p. 84. 

 Alle alle (Linn.), Schalow (1904), p. 130. 

 Mergulus alle (L.), le Roi (1911), p. 256. 

 Alle alle L., Zedlitz (1911), p. 306. 



cf, Icefjord near Cape Boheman, Aug. 11, 1921. 



I saw these small divers for the first time in the Arctic Ocean 

 off Bearisle. Nearer Spitsbergen they became more and more 

 numerous. In Icefjord large troops were feeding everywhere in the 

 end of June. I think that the largest colony here is situated near 

 Advent Bay in the high steep disintegrated rocks at the northern 

 side of the valley, in which Longyear City lies. Their melodious 

 laughing cry (described by le Roi (p. 257) as: „prrrr, quie, quie, quie"), 

 is heard from afar. Continually large flocks, consisting of a hundred 

 and more birds, flew across the nesting-cliffs (O.E. July 18). Then 

 they nearly all had young. 



On Mt Congress they bred in small numbers (July 13). Just as 

 near Advent Bay they bred in Ebba Valley at some distance from 

 the sea (here only a few on Do Geer Range, ± 10 K.M. from 



