AN AUTUMN VISIT TO SPITZBERGEN. 487 



lying on our oars waiting for the reappearance of a Seal, swam 

 up within reach of an oar, and remained there without any fear. 

 I believe I also saw one adult example ; I am tolerably sure that 

 all the others were young, and not adults in winter dress. Early 

 on the morning of the 24th — still in Recherche Bay — 1 saw five 

 young ones together, and later M. Rabot obtained another young 

 example from the deck ; and later again we saw three or four 

 young ones in the Fjord. This very scanty list shows that the 

 adult birds of this species had almost entirely left Spitzbergen 

 before the date of our arrival ; the few young ones met with were, 

 I suppose, late birds left by the parents to find their own way 

 south when sufficiently grown to attempt it. The black Guillemots 

 seen off the Norwegian coast at the beginning and end of the 

 voyage were, no doubt, Uria grylle, though where the present 

 species goes to for the winter is one of the innumerable things 

 not yet known. Do they frequent the northern coast of Russia, — 

 i. e. the land to the east of Norway, — or do they keep to the edge 

 of the pack, in such situations as the surroundings are favourable ? 

 Certainly this is not the case with the portion of the pack-edge 

 approached by us off Edge's Land, but there the edge was rotten, 

 and the surroundings may therefore not have been favourable. 



Briinnich's Guillemot, Alca Bruennichi, Dresser ('Birds of 

 Europe') ; Norwegian, "Alke." — The extremely small number of 

 birds of this and the next species was one of the most notice- 

 able features of this voyage. Two old Guillemots heard calling 

 to their young at sea, lat. 71° 21', on August 28th, were very 

 probably of the common species. About half-a-dozen seen in the 

 neighbourhood of Bear Island, on Sept. 1st, were probably of the 

 present species. On Sept. 2nd one was seen ; on the 3rd five or 

 six were seen, one of which was a young bird; on the 8th, one; 

 on the 10th, one, and young (perhaps two of each); on the 19th, 

 a couple ; on the 25th, one ; 26th, one ; 27th, two ; 28th, several; 

 on the 29th, a good many, including one with white throat; and 

 one slightly grey, seen near Bear Island, may have been of either 

 this or the common species, to which all seen subsequently 

 probably belonged. These few stragglers formed a remarkable 

 contrast to the millions in those regions during the summer. 



Little Auk, Mergulus alle, Linn. ; Norwegian, " Alke-Konge." — 

 Two or three dozen seen when off Bear Island, on Sept. 1st; on 

 the 3rd and 4th, a few each day ; on the 5th, off Edge's Land, we 



