S98 Mr. A. Trevor-Battye on the 



charr's throat) all my specimens of this fish (about 5 inches 

 long) were dropped by Guillemots when shot. 



I have but one other remark to make. On Wednesday, 



August 5th, we were steaming slowly in the launch past Coal 



Bay, through a slightly broken sea. I was standing on deck 



with Conway, explaining to him the difference between the 



Common and Briinnich's Guillemot, many of the latter being 



then round us accompanied by their young. We passed one 



of these within a few yards, when I noticed that its young 



one was sitting on its back. I had barely time to call my 



companion's attention to this when the bird dived, old and 



young disappearing, not instantaneously but the old bird 



first, leaving the young one for an instant solitary, which then 



followed her example. Again, perhaps a quarter of an hour 



after this, a Guillemot whose young one was swimming close 



to her side, as they do, touching her suddenly, seemed to sink 



herself low in the water, and the next moment her young was 



on her back. The boat was then perhaps ten yards off, and 



two seconds or so after the birds had gone down. 



Mr. Pike has a note which shows how early these and the 

 bird next mentioned return to Spitsbergen :—^' Jan. 11th. 

 Saw Tystie on water and heard Eiders and Brunnich's 

 Guillemots crying and diving close inshore " (in Chapman's 

 ' Wild Norway,' p. 346). 



Nordenskiold remarks that Briinnich's Guillemot flies 

 ''heavily and ill." As a matter of fact, it is perhaps the 

 fastest-flying of all Arctic birds. 



r 26. Uria mandtii, Licht. Mandt's Guillemot. 



Who has been to the Arctic regions and not developed an 

 affection for the little Tystie, so often the only companion of 

 his solitude? This Guillemot nests farther inland than any 

 other sea-bird in Spitsbergen except the Little Auk. It nests 

 with equal unconcern within reach of the hand in chinks of the 

 low rocks or miles inland high up in the inaccessible ridges of 

 a mountain peak. There is nothing defiant or suspecting in 

 the Tystie's character, but it is confiding and somehow always 

 associates itself in one's recollections with sunshine and 



