304 Mr. G. Gillett on the Birds of Novaya Zemlya. 



ties of observation were necessarily very limited, and consequently 

 I can offer but a meagre and incomplete account of the ornitho- 

 logy of this wild and desolate region. I will endeavour, how- 

 ever, to give as correct a list as possible of the birds actually ob- 

 served by me, though about some, as will be noted, I am a 

 little doubtful ; and I will also append a few remarks on the 

 habits and localities of some of the species. Since the year 

 1837, when Dr. von Baer* explored these islands, I believe no 

 naturalist has visited them ; and he does not appear to have 

 gone further north than Matthew's Straits, M^hich divide the 

 Northern from the Southern Island. I imagine, however, from 

 all 1 hear that the portion of the coast that he explored is the 

 richest field for the ornithologist. We, unfortunately, had not 

 time to visit this part. In the more northern part of the 

 country, namely from Black Point, in lat. 75° 33' N. to Cape 

 Nassau, in rather more than lat. 76° 30' N., where we first got 

 among the ice, I saw merely the ordinary Arctic sea-birds, which 

 have been so often described by various writers that I need not 

 say very much about them. 



? 1. Falco gyrfalco, Linn. Gyr-Falcon. 



I saw two large Falcons, which I imagine were of the Nor- 

 wegian form, flying over the ship by Vaigatz Island, at the 

 entrance of the Kara Sea; both were in immature plumage; 

 but I could, not obtain a specimen. 



? 2. P^ALCo PEREGRiNUs, Gmcl. Peregrine Falcon. 



It is with great doubt that I record this species ; but I will 

 briefly relate the circumstances under which I believe I saw it, 

 and my grounds for so considering it. While on shore in Mat- 

 thew''s Straits, on the 5th of August, a stormy wild day, with a 

 gale blowing from the south-west and driving showers of sleet, 

 my attention was aroused by the scream of a Falcon ; and on 

 climbing a rough hill overlooking a deep rocky ravine, I saw 

 the old male bird fly from a stone some two hundred yards 



* " Description of Animal Life in Nova Zembla. By K. E. von Baer." 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. iv. pp. 145-154. [Translated from ' Arcliiv fiir Natur- 

 geschichte,' 1839 (i. pp. 160-170), where the paper, originally published, 

 under the title of " Vie animale a Nowaia Zenilia," in the ' Bull. Sc. de 

 I'Acad. de St. P^tersb.' (iii. pp. 343-;Jo2) is reprinted.— Ed.] 



