THE IBIS. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. XXIII. JULY 1870. 



XXI. — On the Birds ofNovaya Zemhja. 

 By George Gillett, F.Z.S. 



It is with some hesitation that I venture to submit this short 

 notice of the birds observed by me during a trip to Novaya 

 Zendya to the readers of * The Ibis.^ In the first place^ the 

 expedition which I joined was in no way organized for scientific 

 purposes, being simply a sporting trip for hunting the White 

 Bear, Walrus, and Seal ; and Spitsbergen being, at any rate as 

 regards the first two animals, nearly exhausted, we determined 

 to try the less known and less disturbed hunting-grounds of 

 Novaya Zemlya. In the second place, we were all rather sports- 

 men than naturalists, though I have always been more or less 

 a collector of birds, and have had a good many years' expe- 

 rience in Norway of the commoner Northern species. Besides 

 this, we were unavoidably delayed in starting by the amount 

 of fitting and strengthening required by our vessel, so that in- 

 stead of leaving Norway, as we had originally intended, in the 

 beginning of May, it was the 4th of July before we embarked 

 at Tromso, and the 17th of that month before we sighted land. 

 The unknown and dangerous nature of the coast, the absence of 

 any correct charts, and the generally stormy and foggy weather 

 we met with during the whole cruise prevented our getting 

 on shore, except on some few occasions ; so that my opportuni- 



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