96 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [cHAr. 



I have not had an opportunity of making any observations on 

 the mode of life of these birds. 



As the skua pursues the kittiwake and the glaucous gull, it 

 is in its turn pursued with extraordinary fierceness by the little 

 swiftly-flying and daring bird taernan, the Arctic tern {Sterna 

 niacroura, Naum.). This beautiful bird is common everywhere 

 on the coasts of Spitzbergen, but rather rare on Novaya Zemlya. 

 It breeds in considerable flocks on low grass-free headlands or 

 islands, covered with sand or pebbles. The eggs, which are 

 laid on the bare grovind without any trace of a nest, are so like 

 lichen-covered pebbles in colour, that it is only with difficulty 

 one can get eyes upon them ; and this is the case in a yet 

 higher degree with the newly-hatched young, which notwith- 

 standing their thin dress of down have to lie without anything 

 below them among the bare stones. From the shortness of 

 their legs and the length of their wings it is only with difficulty 

 that the tern can go on the ground. It is therefore impossible 

 for it to protect its nest in the same way as the " tjufjo." In- 

 stead, this least of all the swimming birds of the Polar lands 

 does not hesitate to attack any one, whoever he may be, that 

 dares to approach its nest. The bird circles round the disturber 

 of the peace with evident exasperation, and now and then goes 

 whizzing past his head at such a furious rate that he must every 

 moment fear that he will be wounded with its sharp beak. 



Along with the swimmers enumerated above, we find every- 

 where along these shores two species of eider, the vanliga eidern, 

 common eider (Somateria mollissima, L.) 2inA prahtejdern . king- 

 duck (Somateria sjjectahilis, L.). The former prefers to breed on 

 low islands, which, at the season for laying eggs, are already 

 surrounded by open water and are thus rendered inaccessible to 

 the mountain foxes that wander about on the mainland. The 

 richest eider islands I have seen in Spitzbergen are the Down 

 Islands at Horn Sound. When I visited the place in 1858 the 

 whole islands were so thickly covered with nests that it was 

 necessary to proceed wath great caution in order not to trample 

 on eggs. Their number in every nest was five to six, sometimes 

 larger, the latter case, according to the walrus-hunters, being 

 accounted for by the female when she sits stealing eggs from 

 her neighbours. I have myself seen an egg of Anser bernicla in 

 an eider's nest. The eggs are hatched by the female, but 

 the beautifully coloured male watches in her neighbourhood and 

 gives the signal of flight when danger approaches. The nest 

 consists of a^ rich, soft, down bed. The best down is got by 

 robbing the down-covered nest, an inferior kind by plucking 

 the dead birds. When the female is driven from the nest she 

 seeks in haste to scrape down over the eggs in order that they 

 may not be visible. She besides squirts over them a very 



