SPITZBEKfiEN AMI GRF.E\T,AXn. to 



colour of a partridge. The liindmost claw is broad and short, 

 with a short nail ; the tail is bobb'd, like that of other ducks. 

 I could find nothing- in their maws or gizzards that could 

 make me certain of their food, but only sand-stones. They 

 fly a great many of them in flocks like other wild ducks ; 

 when they do see any men, they hold up their heads and 

 make a very long neck. They make their nests upon the 

 low islands ; they make them of the feathers of their bellies, 

 which they mix with moss ; but these are not the same fea- 

 thers which are called the edder-down. 



We found their nests with two, three, or four eggs in 

 them, the most whereof were rotten when we came to Sjntz- 

 hergen, but some of them were good to eat ; they are of a pale 

 green, somewhat bigger than our duck-eggs ; the seamen 

 made an hole at eacli end, and so blew the white and the 

 yolk out, and strung the shells upon a packthread. I would 

 have brought some of them to Hamburgh, but they began to 

 stink, so that I was forced to fling tliem away, although the 

 shells were entire. These clucks have a very good flesh ; we 

 boyl'd and roasted them as we did tbe other birds, but the 

 fat of them we flung away, for it tasted of train-oyl, and 

 made us vomit. 



The ships that arrived at Spitzhergen before us got a great 

 many of them. 



These mountain ducks are not at all shy or afraid of men 

 when we first arrive there, but afterwards they grow quite 

 wild, so that you can hardly come near enough to shoot them. 

 That which I have drawn here was shot in the South Bay 

 (in Spitzhergen), on the 18th o^ June. 



10. Of the Kirmew.i 



The hirmew hath a thin sharp-pointed bill, as red as blood; 

 she shews very large, especially when she stands upright, 



^ The Arctic Tern {Sterna macroura, or Arctic(i). 



10 



