1922.] The Birds of Spitshenjin and Bear Island. 159 



VIII. — The Birds of Spitshergen and Bear Island*. By 

 the Rev. F.C. R. Jourdain, M.A., M.B.O.U., C.F.A.O.U. 



The literature of the Spitsbergen group has been so ex- 

 haustively dealt with by Prof. A. Koenig and the late 

 Dr. 0. Le Roi in 'Avifauna Spitzbergensis,' that it seems 

 unnecessary to reprint the long list of papers on the ornith- 

 ology of the group, which is practically complete up to 1911. 

 Some addenda will, however, be found in a paper by 

 H. Schalow in the J. f. 0. 1912, pp. 621-630. 



By far the most important work on the ornithology of 

 Spitsbergen is that of- Koenig and Le Roi, in which the 

 foreign literature (ignored by English waiters on the subject 

 almost entirely) is carefully colhited. This fine work must 

 always remain the foundation of all future research on the 

 subject. Of earlier writers on ihe sul^ject, Fridcrich Martens 

 (1675) gave a list of 17 species, of which 15 can be identified 

 with certainty ; C J. Phipps (' A Voyage towards the 

 North Pole, etc.^ 1774) records 12 species ; J. C. Ross 

 (Appendix to W. E. Parry's * Narrative of an attempt to 

 reach the North Pole,^ 1828) mentions 21 forms, of which 

 17 are probably correct ; and 0. Toroll (' Bidrag till Spits- 

 bergens Molluskfauna,' 1859) includes a list of 30 species, 

 of which 22 are reliable. Malmgren (' Anteckningar till 

 Spetsbergens Fogel-Fauna,' 1863) records 28 species, of 

 which 3 are doubtful, and estimates the breeding species 

 at 22. In his ' Nva antecknino-ar till Spetsberoens foo-el- 

 fauna,' 1864, the number of recorded species is raised to 27, 

 and 15 species are recorded from Bear Island. The Rev. 

 A. E. Eaton ('Zoologist,' 1873, pp. 3762-3772 ; and 1874, 

 pp. 3805-3822) has some interesting notes on the fauna, and 

 treats of 24 species. T. v. Heuglin (' Heisen nach den 

 Nordpolarmeer in dem Jahren 1870 und 1871,' 1874) com- 

 piles a list of 32 species, 2 of which should be deleted, while 

 Sundevall (' Spetsbergens Foglar, etc.,' 1874) estimates the 



* Contributions of the Oxford University Expedition to Spitsbergen. 

 No. 1. 



