2 
wegian coast, but never breed there, although several of them 
dwell as near us as the Faroes; but also applies to wholly arctic 
forms, such as the Fulmar Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis), which like- 
wise breed in multitudes on the Faroes and right down to St. 
Kilda, but never nest on the coast of Norway. 
And just as the northern point of Norway forms the northern- 
most breeding-place for the Razor-bill (Alca torda), so there are 
found inversely in Spitzbergen and the large archipelagoes in the 
Arctic ocean, certain extreme-northern species, which never 
breed so far south as Norway. This applies to a species of 
Tystie—Mandt’s Guillemot (Uvia mandti), Briinnich’s Guillemot 
(Lomvia bruennicht), the Little Auk (Mergulus alle), the white- 
winged Gulls (Larus glaucus, L. leucopterus and Pagophila eburnea), 
and others. 
The question occurs to us, where do these enormous hosts of 
Little Auks, Briinnich’s Guillemots, and arctic Gulls pass the 
winter? In hosts, whose numbers we can form no conception 
of, they breed on Spitzbergen and the islands in the north of 
Franz-Joseph land, as far towards the North Pole as human eyes 
have reached. It cannot be said that they take up their quarters 
during the winter on the shores of north or west Europe. No 
doubt our shores are visited in the winter by a certain number of 
Little Auks, to which may be added stray flocks of Glaucous 
Gulls (Larus glaucus) and King-Eiders (Somateria spectabilis), or a 
solitary Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) or Briinnich’s Guillemot ; 
but the Spitzbergen Tystie or Mandt’s Guillemot (Uvia mandtt) 
is quite unknown on the European coasts. Here therefore is 
not their winter home. 
When the polar night with its darkness of some months’ 
duration broods over the Arctic archipelagoes, there are not 
many birds which are able to sustain life there. The Snowy Owl 
(Nyctea scandiaca), the Spitzbergen Ptarmigan (Lagopus hyperboreus), 
and perhaps one or two other species, do so; but the sea-birds 
forsake their nesting places, disappear out towards the open 
Arctic Ocean, and quest away where no human being has yet 
been able to follow them. 
To the north of the arctic circle the bird rocks are more 
requent, and larger, than they are further south. With greater 
