102 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the futility of a renewal of the enterprise in the following year, 
Captain Nares announced his intention to abandon all further 
exploration in a northerly direction, and to proceed southwards, 
if possible, during the navigable season of 1876. Permission 
haying been granted us to make use of what remained in the 
depéts of supplies that had been laid out for the exploring 
parties, Parr and I left the ship on the 19th June, dragging with 
us a small satellite sledge, which transported our guns and 
ammunition, and a change of clothing. The floe, though covered 
with pools of water, still afforded tolerable travelling, though 
every hour the thaw was advancing with astonishing rapidity. 
During our first march from the ship we saw three Arctic Terns, 
and flushed a Dovekie from a pool, which however got away. 
At Mushroom Point a pair of Buffon’s Skuas were seated on a 
bare ridge of gravel; one of these we shot whilst it was busily 
employed feeding on a Lemming. We arrived at Dumbell Bay 
early on the 20th, where we shot one of a pair of Brent Geese, 
and a single Ptarmigan and Sanderling; we searched diligently 
for the nests of these birds, which we believed to be breeding 
in the vicinity, but without success. This was the total amount 
of bird-life that we met with in that locality. The morning of 
the 21st found us at Knot Harbour, the spot where we first met 
with T'ringa canutus on the 5th June. A tent having been left 
there for the convenience of the travelling parties, we determined 
to make this spot our head-quarters, as the country around was 
tolerably bare of snow, and several valleys leading from the sea- 
coast offered shelter and a chance of subsistence to birds and 
animals. 
The number of each species of bird that visits the northern 
shore of Grinnell Land is extremely limited; we only found some 
five pairs of Brent Geese nesting within a radius of several miles 
of Knot Harbour. Knots were rather more abundant; their 
cry reminded me somewhat of the Curlew, Numenius arquata. 
The nearest approach that I can make to describing the note, 
are the words “ 'Tullawee Tullawee whee whee,” repeated over 
and over again: the last two notes are much prolonged, and 
sound very mournfully. When these birds were mating I frequently 
saw a female pursued in the air by a couple of males at the same 
time. The Knot has not the power of drumming like the 
Common Snipe, but, after soaring in mid-air with outspread 
