No. III. ORNITHOLOGY. 211 



lat 82 33' N., on June 24, 1876. This nest, from which I 

 killed the male bird, was placed on a gravel ridge at an 

 altitude of several hundred feet above the sea ; and the eggs 

 were deposited in a slight depression in the centre of a 

 recumbent plant of willow, the lining of the nest consisting 

 of a few withered leaves and some of the last year's catkins. 

 August 8, 1876, along the shores of Eobeson Channel, I saw 

 several parties of young ones, three to four in number, fol- 

 lowing their parents, and led by the old birds, searching 

 most diligently for insects. At this date they were in a very 

 interesting stage of plumage, being just able to fly, but 

 retaining some of the down on their feathers. 



9. PHALAROPTJS FULICARIUS. I obtained an example of 

 the grey phalarope, a female, near the ' Alert's ' winter- 

 quarters (lat. 82 27' N.) on June 30, 1876 ; and during the 

 month of July I observed a pair on a small fresh- water pond 

 in lat. 82 30' N. ; they were apparently breeding. The 

 female of this species is larger and brighter-coloured than 

 the male bird. Several other examples were observed in the 

 neighbourhood of our winter-quarters by various members of 

 the Expedition. 



10. TRINGA CANUTUS. I was not so fortunate as to obtain 

 the eggs of the knot during our stay in the Polar regions, 

 though it breeds in some numbers along the shores of Smith 

 Sound and the north coast of Grinnell Land. It appears to 

 be common throughout the Parry Islands during summer, 

 as Sabine found it (in 1820) nesting in great numbers on 

 Melville Island. I find it enumerated, in a list of birds 

 preserved in the archives of the Admiralty, as procured 

 by Dr. Anderson, of H.M.S. ' Enterprise,' at Cambridge Bay 

 (lat. 69 10' N.) in July 1853. On July 28, 1875, Dr. 

 Coppinger came across a party of six knots several miles 

 inland from Port Foulke : these birds were feeding near a 

 rill, and were very wild ; but he managed to secure a single 

 specimen, a male in full breeding-plumage. August 25, 

 1875, I observed several of these birds near the water-edge 



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