400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



was too far off for rny shot to be effectual, which I much regretted, 

 as I thus failed to add a new species to the list of birds killed in 

 Spitzbergen, for I am quite confident these were Black-throated 

 Divers, and the harpooner, who was rowing bow. was, inde- 

 pendently, of the same opinion. His remarks a propos of the 

 present birds helped to strengthen my belief that he was correct 

 in his identification of the bird he saw the day before as a Great 

 Northern Diver. Some short distance further on we came to a 

 pair of Red-throated Divers, one of which I succeeded in bagging. 

 On subsequently visiting the 'Isbjorn,'* to deliver some letters, 

 her captain (Steenersen), seeing it lying in the boat, remarked that 

 it was not an " every-day (i.e. common) capture" (= en hverdaja 

 fangst), but tbat he bimself shot one (presumably this species) the 

 week before, but bad eaten it. We saw and heard several more 

 Divers subsequently during this day's excursion. I do not know 

 the difference in the cry of the different species, but believe that 

 at least a pair which were flying at a considerable height over us, 

 when ashore near the mouth of the Fjord, were Black-throated. 

 Fulmars were plentiful as we rowed past the smacks ; I secured 

 a couple of adult specimens, the second of which we tried to 

 capture with a bent pin and piece of string, and should no doubt 

 bave succeeded if we had had a tougher bait than cod-liver, which 

 would not hold to the pin. Finally, frightening it to a more 

 respectable distance, I killed it with a charge of small shot. The 

 sandstone rocks near the point of the promontory called the 

 " Fort" (= Festning), certainly deserve the name, looking exactly 

 like an artificially-built fort of masonry. A small low-lying rock 

 off the Fort was completely covered with Kittiwakes and Arctic 

 Terns : after a search I discovered one immature specimen among 

 the latter, so shot it, killing a Kittiwake at the same discharge. 

 We landed first on the eastern side of Cape Staratschin, and 

 looked for fossils and plants. I collected a good many of the 

 latter, but found hardly any fossils, and no birds, but saw tracks 

 of foxes on the snow two or three times. We therefore returned 

 to the boat and rowed a good bit further west. We landed again 



* The well-known sloop in which Graf Wilczek made his pioneer voyage 

 in connection with the Tegetthof Expedition ; and in which, later, Captain 

 Markham and Sir Henry Gore Booth made the voyage an account of which 

 was published by the former as ' A Polar Reconnaisance.' 



