ARCTIC LAND QUADRUPEDS AND BIRDS. 



43 



for want of better game, goes out lemming-hunting, and rejoices when he can 

 kill a sufficient number for his dinner. 



Several birds, such as the snowy owl and the ptarmigan {Lagopus alhus), 

 which can easily procure its food under the snow, winter in the highest lati- 

 tudes ; but by far the greater number are merely summer visitants of the Arc- 

 tic regions. After the little bunting, the first arrivals in spring are the snow- 

 geese, who likewise are the first to leave the dreary regions of the north on 

 their southerly migration. The common and king eider-duck, the Brent geese, 



TUE SNOWY OWL. 



the great northern black and red throated divers, are the next to make their 

 appearance, followed by the pintail and longtail ducks {Aoias caudacuta and 

 f/lacialis), the latest visitors of the season. These birds generally take their 

 departure in the same order as they arrive. The period of their stay is but 

 short, but their presence imparts a wonderfully cheerful aspect to regions at 

 other times so deserted and dreary. As soon as the young are sufficiently 

 fledged, they again betake themselves to the southward ; the character of the 

 season much influencing the period of their departure. 



As far as man has penetrated, on the most northern islets of Spitzbergen, 

 or on the ice-blocked shores of Kennedy Channel, the eider-duck and others 

 of the Arctic anatidte build their nests ; and there is no reason to doubt that 

 if the pole has breeding-places for them, it re-echoes with their cries. Nor 

 need they fear to plunge into the very heart of the Arctic zone, for the flight 

 of a goose being forty or fifty miles an hour, these birds may breed in the re- 

 motest northern solitude, and in a few hours, on a fall of deep autumn snow, 

 convey themselves by their swiftness of wing to better feeding-grounds. 



One of the most interesting of the Arctic birds is the snow-bunting {Plec- 

 trophanes nivalis), which may properly be called the polar singing-bird, as it 

 breeds in the most northern isles, such as Spitzbergen. and Novaja Zemlya, or 



