NOTES OF A NATURALIST ON SPITZBERGEN. 325 



the water meanwhile, which we retrieved for them on our way 

 back. Continuing up the coast, and passing the entrance to 

 Bell Sound, about 5 p.m. we entered Is Fjord, and anchored at 

 midnight in Green Harbour, as far in as the ice permitted. 

 On our passage up the Fjord, Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Brunnich's 

 Guillemots, &c, very abundant. Black Guillemots (= Mandt's 

 Guillemots, Cepphus Mandti, Lichtenstein) began to get common 

 up the Fjord. 



July 27th. All the sportsmen of the ship landed in parties of 

 four at 1 a.m. for a Beindeer hunt. The party to which I belonged 

 proceeded first in a N.E. direction, but got separated, and Wolley 

 and I, after fruitlessly endeavouring to force our way in that 

 direction, returned to the low ground, and continued up a huge 

 valley of unknown length, running nearly east and west, with 

 mountains sloping down to it, from the north and south, and up 

 which valley two other parties of sportsmen had got the start of 

 us, which was the cause of our endeavouring to force our way in 

 a different direction. Chapman got separated by going after 

 three Ptarmigan, of which we caught sight on one of the crags a 

 short distance ahead of us ; he shortly afterwards found another 

 single bird. He found them " all ridiculously tame, sitting among 

 the loose rocks unconcernedly," while he " climbed within reach, 

 and killed them all." They were all old cock birds. He only 

 bagged two out of the four, the other two falling on to a crag 

 which he could not scale, and lost much time in endeavouring to 

 do so. The specimens obtained were moulting heavily — indeed 

 I had never previously seen wild birds in such a ragged and 

 dirty condition. Chapman describes these cock Ptarmigan as 

 giving " a low call when lighting, a very weak imitation of the 

 [Bed] Grouse cock." Little Auks, and probably Brunnich's 

 Guillemots, were breeding on a cliff-face a little way inland, at a 

 height above the sea that we guessed at 1400 or 1500 feet. We 

 observed Snow Buntings in pairs, but as we were bent on the 

 pursuit of Beindeer we did not spend time in hunting for the 

 nests of this or other species. We saw several pairs of Purple 

 Sandpipers that were evidently breeding, and by whose nests we 

 must have passed pretty close. Thomson, on the other side of 

 the Fjord, found a nest of this bird this day containing four eggs, 

 two of which were broken on the way back to the ship ; the other 

 two are now in Chapman's possession : the eggs are similar in 



