BIEDS OF SPITZBERGKEN. 443 



well explored by the Swedish Expedition in 1861., and if 

 either had been there they must have been noticed. Sabine's 

 gull was first discovered by Ed. Sabine breeding with the 

 Arctic tern, on three low islands in the north end of Baffin' s 

 Bay, twenty English miles from the west coast of Greenland, 

 in 75 5' north lat. 



The two first examples of Koss's gull were found off the 

 coast of Melville's Peninsula, 69|- north lat., but they 

 have never been observed further north than this. Is alto- 

 gether a stranger to Greenland, North Europe, and Asia. 



5. The Great Black-backed Gull. Keilhan must have 

 mistaken individuals of the glaucous for this gull, which is 

 not a high Arctic bird. 



6. The Great Northern Diver. Not a single naturalist, 

 except Phipps, who journeyed towards the North Pole in 

 1773, has ever seen any other diver there except the red- 

 throated. 



7. The Eazor Bill. Another mistake of Parry's. 



Prof. SundevalPs list of the birds which he saw on Spitz- 

 bergen in 1838, agrees with the foregoing. 



The ornithologist will see that Spitzbergen presents but 

 a meagre bill of fare, and the oologist will scarcely find there 

 half a dozen birds breeding whose eggs he would care to 

 take. 



The white fox and the reindeer appear to be the only 

 animals that live on this barren island. The Polar bear 

 occasionally floats on his drift ice-rafts to these wild shores, 

 and the principal animal life appears to be in the seas which 

 surround it, which swarm with walrus and seals of every 

 species. 



Ninety- three species of phanerogamous plants are met 

 with on Spitzbergen, of which eighty-one are known in 

 Greenland, and sixty-nine in the north of Scandinavia. 



