430 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



and I can therefore only make the following statement on 

 this point : 



From the acquaintance I had made during my own preceding 

 journeys and the study of others', with the bird- world of the high 

 north, I had got the erroneous idea that about the same species of 

 birds are to be met with everywhere in the Polar lands of Europe, 

 Asia, and America. Experience gained during the expedition of 

 the Vega shows that this is by no means the case, but that the 

 north-eastern promontory of Asia, the Chukch peninsula, forms 

 in this respect a complete exception. Birds occur here in much 

 fewer numbers, but with a very much greater variety of types 

 than on Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, and Greenland ; in con- 

 sequence of which the bird-world 

 on the Chukch peninsula has 

 in its entirety a character dif- 

 fering wholly from that of the 

 Atlantic Polar lands. We indeed 

 meet here with types closely 

 allied to the glaucous gull {Larus 

 fjlaucus, Briinn.), th^e ivory gull 

 {L. ehiirnens, Gmel.), the kittiwake 

 (L. trkladykis, L.), the long-tailed 

 duck {Hurdda glacialis, L.), the 

 king duck (Somateria spectabilis, 

 L.),^ the phalarope (Thalaropus 

 fulicarius, ^^Bonap.), the purple 

 sandpiper (TrviUja maritima, 

 Briinn.), &c., of Spitzbergen and 

 Novaya Zemlya; but along with 

 these are found here many peculiar 

 species, for instance the American 

 eider (Somateria V -nigrum, Gray), 

 ., a swanlike goose, wholly white 

 with black wing points {Ansa' 

 hyperliorcus. Pall.), a greyish-brown 

 goose with bushy yellowish-white feather-covering on the head 

 {Anser picttLS, Pall.), a species of Fuligula, elegantly coloured on 

 the head in velvet-black, white, and green, {Fidigula Stclkri, Pall.), 

 the beautifidly marked, scarce Larus Rossii, Richards, of which Dr. 

 Almquist on the 1st July, 1879, shot a specimen from the vessel, 

 a little brown sandpiper with a spoonlike widened bill-iDoint 

 {Eur7j7bor]iynchuspygmaius, L.), and various song-birds not found in 

 Sweden, &c. Besides, a number of the Scandinavian types living 

 here also, according to Lieutenant Nordquist, are distinguished 

 by less considerable differences in colour-marking and size. The 



^ The conimou eider {S. mollissima, L.) is absent here, or at least exceed- 

 ingly rare. 



SONG-BIRDS IN THE RIGGING OF THE 



June 1879. 



