PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 429 



brown, the mantle dull black, glossed with purple, fringes of pale grey giving the 

 interscapular region a " scaly " appearance. The wing-coverts are of a darker 

 grey than the head and neck, and margined with white. On the fore-breast and 

 fore-part of the flanks the grey is obscured by marginal fringes of white, while the 

 hinder flanks are either striated with dark grey, or more or less blotched with the 

 same hue. The mid-breast and abdomen are white. The juvenile plumage 

 resembles that of the adult in summer, but the feathers of the crown and mantle 

 are margined with buff and white, the wing-coverts with pure white. The young 

 in down have the forehead buff, with a short median line of black : the crown has 

 a more or less distinct black horse-shoe, while the nape is marked by loops of buff 

 and black. The hind-neck is grey, with obscure lines of darker grey. The back 

 is variegated with black and buff, and spangled with white, while the legs are 

 mottled buff and black. The under parts are dull white. 



2. Distribution. There is no proof of the breeding of this species in the 

 British Isles, although Saunders thought it might possibly breed on high ground 

 in the Shetlands. It nests, however, in the Faeroes, Iceland, Spitsbergen, Franz- 

 Josef Land, Northern Scandinavia ; the Murman coast, Waigatz, and Novaya 

 Zemlya in North Russia. The Taimyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Isles are 

 also inhabited by this or one of its subspecific forms. In the New World it nests 

 in Greenland, and apparently also in Arctic America (Melville Island and Ellesmere 

 Land), but is replaced by allied races in Bering Sea and Alaska. Birds from the 

 high north are migratory, though apparently those from Northern Norway are 

 resident, and in the Old World their winter quarters lie chiefly in the North and 

 Baltic Seas, and in small numbers to the Mediterranean, the Maroccan coast, and 

 the Azores. On the west side of the Atlantic it winters in the Great Lakes, south 

 to Georgia, Florida, and the Bermudas. [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A winter visitor to our coasts. The young birds arrive 

 during September, and the adults follow in October. Of passage beyond the 

 southern limits of our area there is no definite evidence. Departure takes place 

 during April and May, but a few birds are not infrequently noted in the northern 

 isles in the summer months, although they have never been proved to breed 

 there. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Although no nest has ever been recorded from the 

 British Isles, the fact of its breeding in the Fseroes seems to show that it might 

 possibly nest in some of our northerly islands. The nest is found in lower latitudes 

 generally at a considerable height, but farther north it may be met with not far 



VOL. III. 3K 



