AN AUTUMN Visit To spitzbergen. 17 



recorded by Baron Nordenskiold as shot by him in Bell Sound in 

 1858. No other observer having met with this species in Spitz - 

 bergen, and the fact of the confusion in the scientific names, led 

 Prof. Newton to suppose that the bird in question was simply a 

 Brent Goose. 



Swan, Cygnns sp. ? — One recorded as shot, and on another 

 occasion one seen (Newton, 'Ibis,' quoting Malmgren). 



Common Guillemot, Alca troile, L. — This species has not 

 been recorded from Spitzbergen since Parry's fourth voyage, but 

 Herr J. Dreyer is convinced that he shot, in 1881, " a Common 

 Alke," similar to the birds he is familiar with round Tromsd, and 

 which he is sure was not a " Spitzberg's Alke" (Brimnich's 

 Guillemot). 



This brings up the total number of species of birds which 

 have occurred in Spitzbergen, if the present doubtful identi- 

 fications are all correct, to thirty-two, or five more than Dr. 

 Malmgren's total in 1864, or Prof. Newton's in 1865. 



While in the north of Norway this autumn (1883) I saw a 

 pair of young Polar Bears alive on board a Norwegian "jagt" 

 from Spitzbergen, and one on a Eussian from Novaya Zemlya ; 

 and heard of others. There were two Bears seen this summer at 

 Bell Sound, neither of which was killed. 



The Bear on the Eussian vessel was within an ace of escaping 

 from its box when I went to see it, one of the crew having 

 incautiously opened the trap-door. It received a fearful blow on 

 the head from the back of an axe, and was only reduced to order 

 by a man charging it with a pole, which he rammed down its 

 throat, and forced it backwards into its box. The uncouth crew 

 were so wildly excited that I began to think I might be the next 

 to receive a blow from the axe on my head, and was not sorry 

 when I was once more over the schooner's side and in my boat. 



Eichardson's Skua, Stercorarius crepidatus (Gmel). — Herr J. 

 Dreyer gave me two eggs which he took this season (1883) from 

 the same nest in Middle Hook, Bell Sound ; one is of the normal 

 colour of eggs of Eichardson's Skua, olive-brown, spotted with 

 dark brown; while the other more resembles a Pomatorhine 

 Skua's egg (with which, however, I have not compared it), being 

 a pale greenish blue, with a few small brown spots distributed 

 over the whole surface. Both eggs are unfortunately broken, but 



The Zoologist.— Jan. 1884. o 



