1S84.I Recoil Liicrdti/rr. ^7 



i. e. , to A. couesi. And so on. It is a pity that so valuable and inter- 

 esting a treatise as this of Mr. Nelson's should not have been more care- 

 fully printed. 



The author accompanied the 'Corwin' on her cruise in search of the 

 ■Jeannette' during the latter part of the summer of iSSi. We quote : — 



"On June 21, we left Saint Michaels and crossed Bering Sea to Saint 

 Lawrence Island and Plover Bay on the Siberian coast; thence along the 

 coast and through the Straits and northwest in the Arctic to the vicinity 

 of Nordenskiold's winter quarters. .• .Thence we returned again to Saint 

 Lawrence Island and to Saint Michaels. After remaining here a short 

 time, we returned to the Arctic, touching at all the islands in Bering- 

 Straits; and during the remainder of the summer visited in succession the 

 entire Alaskan coast-line from Bering Straits to Point Barrow, including 

 Kotzebue Sound, and on the Siberian shore from the Straits to North Cape. 

 We also cruised along the edge of the ice-pack, landing upon Herald and 

 Wrangel Islands. On Sept. 14, we passed through Bering Straits bound 

 south ; and after remaining sometime at Ounalaska in the Aleutian 

 Islands, we left. October 4, homeward bound. 



"The observations upon which the present paper is based were made 

 both during the cruise just detailed, and in addition are the results of ob- 

 servations made by myself during over four j^ears' residence at Saint 

 Michaels, and explorations carried on in various directions from that 

 point. In addition, I have used information obtained from various reports 

 which have been issued regarding the region in question 



"The species given for the Alaska coast and the islands of Bering Sea 

 are almost, or quite, a complete list of the birds found there; but the 

 species mentioned upon the Siberian coast form only a small quota of those 

 occurring in that region." 



After some pages concisely descriptive of the region and its avifauna, 

 the author proceeds to treat, in more or less detail, no fewer than 192 

 species of birds, North American with few exceptions. The interesting 

 notes ai-e chiefly those of a field naturalist, the technicalities of the subject 

 being at a minimum. The determination of the species, we presume, and 

 the terminology employed, rest upon excellent authority. 



The nearness of America to Asia in this latitude, the narrowness 

 between meridians in Arctic regions, and thehomogeneousnessof circum- 

 polar faunae, all tend to blend the birds of the two continents. Fortv 

 miles of Arctic ocean is nothing in the distribution of birds, and in fact 

 two faunae inosculate here. This seems to be brought about in two ways, 

 one of which is the actual interchange of types of birds characteristic of 

 the ' Old' and • New World' respectively. As our knowledge of the bird 

 fauna of North i\laska has matured, we have lengthened our North Amer- 

 ican list of such types ; and quite possibly, when the Siberian fauna is as 

 well known, an Asiatic list may be the gainer by sundry acquisitions from 

 our side. Among the Old World forms found in Alaska we may mention 

 the following : Phylloscopiis borcalis. Panis ductus, Budytcs Jiavus. 

 Anthus fratensis, Motacilla ocularis.. Pyrrhula cassiiii. All of these 



