THE BIRDS OF SPITSBERGEN. 259 
the continuous string of parents arriving at the cliff with 
food for the young. Each old bird had hanging from its 
bill a small fish (the diminutive Arctic cod), many of which 
must have been carried for miles. Altogether this vast 
“ Loomery ” was a most imposing sight. 
*30. URIA MANDTI, Licht—Mandt’s Guillemot. 
This Arctic form of our pretty British Black Guillemot 
does not by any means keep to the sea-cliffs in its nesting. 
It can be found on high inland precipices a long distance 
from the nearest salt water. It breeds everywhere along 
the coast, generally in the rotten cliffs—though, indeed, 
nearly all cliffs in Spitsbergen seem to be rotten. 
A great many breed at the Vogelberg, though not in a 
colony: and the low, decaying black shale cliffs at Cape 
Thordsen were occupied almost exclusively by this species. 
At this spot on August 4 I noted the young, who were almost 
full grown, calling plaintively and vigorously to be fed by 
parents who seemed no larger than themselves. 
The captain of a Finnish steamer (the Virgo), which 
anchored on July 31 in Advent Bay, told me that he had 
that day shot a bird to which his ornithological book of 
reference gave him no clue. He very willingly sent a 
sailor to his steamer, who brought the bird in the flesh for 
my inspection. It certainly was remarkable, being an 
almost white Mandt’s Guillemot. Its black beak and 
vermilion feet told me it was an adult. Its measurements, 
which I took, corresponded exactly to those given in Back- 
house’s European Birds. In place of being (as we should 
roughly describe a normal Mandt’s Guillemot) a black bird 
with white markings, it was a white bird with black mark- 
ings. Its back, neck and breast were pure white, there was no 
brown about the plumage, and the eyes—I may add—were 
of the ordinary brown tint. I tried to get the captain to give 
it to me, but, though very disappointed to find that it was 
only a “Tystie,” he declined, saying he was going to present 
it to the museum of his native town, Helsingfors. 
