The Mammalia and Birds of Franz Josef Land. 87 



II. BIEDS, by William Eagle Clarke, F.L.S., with 

 Notes by William S. Bruce, F.R.S.G.S. 



On his return from a year's residence in Franz Josef Laud, 

 my friend Mr Bruce kindly placed the birds collected by 

 him in my hands for examination and record, — hence this 

 contribution. I am glad to be able to include Mr Bruce's 

 useful and interesting Notes on the Land and its Birds. 

 These appear in brackets, with Mr Bruce's initials. 



It has been thought desirable to include in this contribu- 

 tion the names of all the species of birds which have been 

 observed, or supposed to have been observed, in Franz Josef 

 Land by the few explorers who have visited this, the most 

 northern of archipelagos, and thus to make it a complete 

 record of our present knowledge of its avifauna. 



Certain species in the records, the occurrence of which in 

 Franz Josef Land I consider to be extremely doubtful, are 

 particularised by having a query prefixed to them, and they 

 are also not numbered. A few others in the list may, 

 perhaps, require confirmation, but it is undesirable to exclude 

 them, inasmuch as they are not unlikely to occur. 



The materials for a complete account of the avifauna of 

 Franz Josef Land are not voluminous. That this should 

 be so is, no doubt, due to the fact that the archipelago 

 remained undiscovered until the year 1873; and it has, for 

 this and other cogent reasons, been comparatively little 

 visited. Indeed, most of the islands of this extensive group 

 have never been explored, and much remains to be accom-^ 

 plished before our knowledge of the birds, and more 

 especially of their distribution over the isles, can be 

 regarded as anything like complete. 



The following works contain all that we know about the 

 ornithology of the Franz Josef Land Archipelago; and to 

 these frequent allusion will be made in this paper : — 



1876. Payee (Julius). " New Lands within the Arctic Circle. 

 Narrative of the Discoveries of the Austrian ship 

 ' Tegetthof in the years 1872-1874." [A translation of 

 " Die osterreich-imgarische Nordpolar Expedition in den 

 Jahren 1872-1874." Wiec, 1876.] 



