No. III. ORNITHOLOGY. 215 



17. URIA GRYLLE. The black guillemot or dovekie was 

 found breeding at various spots along the shores of Smith 

 Sound and northward, notably at Washington Irving Island, 

 Dobbin Bay, Cape Hayes, and Bessels Bay ; it does not, I 

 think, breed north of Cape Union. I saw two or three 

 examples feeding in pools on the floe as far north as lat. 

 82 33' ; but they were evidently mere stragglers. 



18. MERGULUS ALLE. The north-water of Baffin's Bay 

 is the summer home of countless numbers of little auks ; 

 they do not, however, penetrate in any numbers far up Smith 

 Sound, the most northern point where I observed them being 

 in Buchanan Strait (lat. 79). I do not think that they 

 breed to the north of Foulke Fiord ; but the talus at the base 

 of the cliffs which flank that inlet is occupied by myriads of 

 them during the nesting-season. On July 28 we found the 

 young just hatched ; in that stage they are covered with 

 black down. From the large amount of bones and feathers 

 lying around the huts of the Eskimo village of Etah, it is 

 evident that these birds contribute largely to the support 

 of the Arctic Highlanders during summer. 



19. ALCA BRUENNICHII. I observed two looms in August 

 as far north as Buchanan Strait (lat. 79); but this bird was 

 not seen again by me until our return southward in Sep- 

 tember 1876, after regaining navigable water south of Cape 

 Sabine. The north-water of Baffin's Bay is evidently the 

 limit of the northern range of the species in that direction ; 

 and I doubt if there are any breeding-haunts of this species 

 north of Cape Alexander. 



20. COLYMBUS . On September 2, 1875, at Floeberg 



Beach (lat. 82 27' N.), a diver, I think C. septentrionalis, 

 alighted in a pool about a hundred yards from the ship. A 

 boat was instantly lowered ; but the noise made by pushing 

 the boat through the young ice alarmed the bird, which rose 

 and flew to another pool half a mile to the southward. I 

 tried to make my way over the floe towards the bird ; but 

 the ice was unsafe, so I had to give up the pursuit. The 

 numerous lakes and ponds in Grinnell Land abound with a 



