wegian coast, but never breed there, although several of them 

 dwell as near us as the Faroes ; but also applies to wholly arctic 

 forms, such as the Fulmar Petrel (Fulmarus glacialis), which like- 

 wise breed in multitudes on the Faroes and right down to St. 

 Kilda, but never nest on the coast of Norway. 



And just as the northern point of Norway forms the northern- 

 most breeding-place for the Razor-bill (Alca torda), so there are 

 found inversely in Spitzbergen and the large archipelagoes in the 

 Arctic ocean, certain extreme-northern species, which never 

 breed so far south as Norway. This applies to a species of 

 Tystie Mandt's Guillemot, (Uvia mandti), Brunnich's Guillemot 

 (Lomvia bmtnnichi)^ f.hte^-ti-ttl'e Auk (Mevgulus alle), the white- 

 winged Gulls (Lams glaitciis^ L,. leucoptems and Pagophila ebuvnea), 

 and others 1 .,' v \ t ' ' 



The question occurs to us, where do these enormous hosts of 

 Little Auks, Brunnich's Guillemots, and arctic Gulls pass the 

 winter ? In hosts, whose numbers we can form no conception 

 of, they breed on Spitzbergen and the islands in the north of 

 Franz-Joseph land, as far towards the North Pole as human eyes 

 have reached. It cannot be said that they take up their quarters 

 during the winter on the shores of north or west Europe. No 

 doubt our shores are visited in the winter by a certain number of 

 Little Auks, to which may be added stray flocks of Glaucous 

 Gulls (Lavus glaucus) and King- Eiders (Somatena spectabilis), or a 

 solitary Ivory Gull (Pagophila ebuvnea) or Brunnich's Guillemot ; 

 but the Spitzbergen Tystie or Mandt's Guillemot (Uvia mandti) 

 is quite unknown on the European coasts. Here therefore is 

 not their winter home. 



When the polar night with its darkness of some months' 

 duration broods over the Arctic archipelagoes, there are not 

 many birds which are able to sustain life there. The Snowy Owl 

 (Nyctea scandiaca), the Spitzbergen Ptarmigan (Lagopus hyperboreus), 

 and perhaps one or two other species, do so ; but the sea-birds 

 forsake their nesting places, disappear out towards the open 

 Arctic Ocean, and quest away where no human being has yet 

 been able to follow them. 



To the north of the arctic circle the bird rocks are more 

 requent, and larger, than they are further south. With greater 



