APPENDIX: NO. XLI. 45 
I made special search for and inquiries after a number of birds 
which have been said to breed in the Faroe Islands, but which I 
could not find any traces of; the principal of these were— 
Falco gyrfaleo, Gyr Falcon. 
Anser leucopsis, Bernicle. 
Anser torquatus, Brent Goose. 
Somateria spectabilis, King Duck. 
Colymbus glacialis, Great Northern Diver. 
Uria briinnichii, Brinnich’s Guillemot. 
Mergulus melanoleucos, Little Auk. 
Alca impennis, Great Auk. 
Larus glaucus, Glaucous Gull. 
I will proceed to make a few remarks on some of the birds in the 
first list—there occur in it the names of only two birds which are 
not known to breed in Britain; the first of these is the Snow 
Bunting, Emberiza nivalis, which breeds very scantily near the tops 
of the mountains ; but in the northernmost islands of the group, on 
the lower grounds, and in small colonies. A neatly made nest, placed 
under a Jarge stone, had young almost fully fledged at the beginning 
of July. We had the pleasure of hearing its sweet little song 
spoken of with so much delight by the northern voyagers. The 
second bird, not known I believe to breed in Britain, is the Purple 
Sandpiper, Zringa maritima; this appears to be the Fiadl-Murra 
of one of the older writers on the Birds of Faroe, for we found it 
breeding on the summits of the mountains in small numbers; young 
just fledged at the end of June. 
Of the Raven, Corvus corax, I saw the black and white variety, 
which has been called a species under the name of C. leucopheus ; 
but two were shown to me alive which came out of the same nest 
with purely black ones; they were marked irregularly and differ- 
ently from each other, and had none of the characters of a species. 
The Raven, but still more the Hooded Crow, is almost a domestic 
bird in Faroe, and very abundant. The Common Snipe, Scolopar 
gallinago, is remarkably tame, and may be seen feeding near houses, 
and within a few yards of men; it is in considerable numbers. 
I looked in vain for S. gallinula. The Whimbrel, N. pheopus, struck 
me as being one of the most characteristic birds of the island, for it 
is very abundant, and entirely replaces the Curlew of the Highlands, 
as it only very partially does in Shetland. It was constantly flying 
round us just out of shot, in company with the noisy Oyster 
Catchers, and occasionally Golden Plovers. 
The Red-necked Phalarope, P. hyperboreus, we only found in 
one remarkably swampy little valley, where also bred Dunlins and 
Golden Plover—the former called in Orkney, Plover’s Page, from 
their habit of attending the Plovers in their flight—Arctic Terns, 
and the year before we were there, we were told a pair or two of 
Black-headed Gulls, probably L. ridtbundus, frequented it. On the 
