166 



Lagopus liyperhorea Sund., le Roi (1911), p. 154. 

 Lagopus hyperhoreus Sund., Zedlitz (1911), p. 323. 



Le Roi's remark (1911, p. 154): „Das Schneehuhn ist über 

 Spitsbergen ziemlich weitschichtig verbreitet. Da es sich aber nur 

 ausserhalb der Brutzeit in den unteren Gebirgsstöcken aufhält, 

 zum Nisten jedoch in die höheren, schwer zugänglichen Lagen 

 zurückzieht, so ist sein Auffinden um diese Zeit mehr dem Zufall 

 anheimgegeben", is but too true. The Oxford University Expedition 

 has nowhere met with this endemic species on its trip. We visited 

 Dickson Land, Ebba Valley '), the region near Nordenskiöld Glacier 

 and Mimer Valley with the purpose of collecting this bird, which, 

 according to Trevor Battye (1897, p. 587) is "very thinly scat- 

 tered over the country". What we saw of this species were feathers, 

 an abandoned nest with egg-shells, droppings and the holes, in 

 which they had taken sand-baths. They seem to breed mostly high 

 up in the mountains and to come to the valleys for feeding pur- 

 poses only towards the evening. Dr. Wirén informed me that 

 formerly he had often met them near Ekman Bay, but when we 

 visited this bay we did not find any. Neither did I see any live 

 Ptarmigans on my second visit to Ebba Valley. Now that the 

 Icetjord-area is peopled more and more, the number ot these birds, 

 which are not numerous, must decrease rapidly as they are so tame 

 that they can easily be killed with stones. 



The Ptarmigan is the only landbird staying here in winter. How 

 they can find their food in the severe arctic winter was discovered 

 by Pike, during his wintering on Amsterdam Isle in 1888/1889: 

 in autumn they excavate tunnels in the snow and in this way 

 they can reach the plants, protected by the snow-layer against the 

 frost (Chapman 1897, p. 347 cit. after le Roi (1911), p. 161). 



II. OBSERVATIONS FROM NORTHERN SCANDINAVIA, 1921. 



To be short I will here treat concisely only those species, which 

 do not breed in Holland or are rare in our country. 



Corvus corax corax L. The Raven is a bird rather often observed 

 along the Norwegian coast. From the boat I saw a pair near Lekö 



]) Ilure they were formerly (1918, 19;20) very iinnuTous and many were 

 killed in these years. 



