25 



or young of these species have been found with certainty in the 

 extreme north, lead to the conclusion that their chief nesting 

 places lie nearer to the Pole than any lands, which civilised man 

 has hitherto explored. Their real habitat no human being per- 

 haps has yet trod. 



We have already mentioned the Little Stint (Tringa minuta), 

 which is somewhat less polar in its habits than the preceding 

 species, and nests moreover so far towards the south as along 

 the Arctic Ocean coast of Asia and Europe. The same remark 

 applies to the Grey Plover (Squatavola helvetica), which in Jaederen, 

 where it occurs like the above named, during the migration 

 seasons, has obtained the unmerited name of " Spanish Plover." 

 This species nests, like the Little Stint, in the Tundra districts 

 of North Siberia, and eastwards to the mouth of the Petchora. 

 The Grey Phalarope (Phalavoptis fulicarius) does not nest so far to 

 the south as Norway. 



Among the web-footed birds, besides the Brent Goose (Bevnicla 

 brenta), already alluded to above, we are also visited by Steller's 

 Duck (Heniconetta stellevi) the most prettily marked of all our 

 ducks. This species, the male of which bears an extraordinarily 

 variegated plumage with a silky gloss on it, never breeds west of 

 the Murman coast, * but visits Varanger Fjord every winter in 

 large numbers. In the summer also an occasional flock of young 

 birds ranges about in the Fjords of Finmarken. The King Eider 

 (Somateria spectabilis) moves likewise in the winter in flocks to the 

 Finmarken coasts from its still more northerly breeding stations. 



A couple of other north-easterly forms, which never nest in 

 Norway, are the Bewick's Swan (Norwegian, Dwarf Swan, Cygnus 

 bewicki), and the Smew (Norwegian, Dwarf Fish-Duck, Mevgus 

 albellus), and this applies probably also to the White-fronted 

 Goose (Anser albifvons). As mentioned above however, it is 

 proved, that the Barnacle Goose (Bevnicla leucopsis) may, in excep- 

 tional cases, remain to breed. 



We may also mention, as non-breeding members of the gull 

 family, besides the white-winged gulls previously named (Lams 

 glaucus, L. leucoptevus and Pagophila eburnea), the "Broad-Tailed" 



* Russian Lapland ; the N.W. corner of Russia, between Norway and the 

 White Sen. Trans!. 



