THE ZooLoGIsST—JANUARY, 1876. 4745 
the size of our own hares; but their flesh, like that of the Alpine 
hare, is insipid. Hare-hunting in Greenland often gives rise to the 
drollest scenes. Their hearing appears to be even weaker than 
their sight. Payer once stood near a hare which was startled by 
repeated firing, but had confined its flight to a few steps: the 
creature was nibbling the moss quietly. Payer took out his sketch- 
book, and drew it in all the different positions which, in its un- 
easiness at the conversation and laughter of his companions, it 
assumed. 
Wolf and Wolf-like Dog.—The peculiar species of wolf met 
with in other Arctic neighbourhoods in not found in East Green- 
land, neither is the wolf-like dog, now dying out from disease, and 
upon which the existence of the Esquimaux in East Greenland 
is completely dependent. Brown, in. his ‘Fauna of Greenland, 
believes that the dogs brought by Torell from Greenland to 
Spitzbergen in 186], to work the sledges (a plan frustrated by 
the sea being found open), would increase rapidly and return to 
the original wolf type. They are also unknown in the North of 
Kurope, and, like the ice- cana fox and reindeer, are peculiar to 
the Arctic Circle. 
Arctic Birds.—Interesting, too, is the more or less periodical 
return of a large number of birds which animate the Arctic world, 
some for only the summer weeks, and some for the whole year, 
such as ptarmigan and ravens (both of which remain through the 
winter); a number of screaming birds—most of which are species 
of gulls distinguished by their greediness—such as the auks, the 
divers, and, above all, the eider ducks. These cling like so many 
white spots to the clefted rock, screaming to each other or sitting 
in a circle on the edge of a floe. A short early ice-covering of the 
coast water, indicating the close of a fleeting summer, has many 
embarrassments for them; and soon the far greater part accept the 
signal for emigration to southern regions. The west coast of Green- 
land is much richer in birds than the east coast. Our share was 
therefore proportionately small. The flesh of Arctic birds has, 
doubtless owing to the nature of their food, a strong taste of 
train-oil.—* German Arctic Expedition’ (vol. ii., p. 465). 
