NOTES OF A NATURALIST ON SPITZBERGEN. 407 



far as I can judge, I think the Spitzbergen horns correspond with 

 the smaller size of the deer that carry them, and are perhaps 

 rather less erratic than they so frequently are in Norway. 



The other mammals mentioned by Prof. Newton are Phoca 

 groenlandica (Fab.), and Mustela erminea, which latter, however, 

 has not been actually obtained. 



The following species of birds were obtained by us in Spitz- 

 bergen : — ♦ 



1. Snow Bunting [Plectrophanes nivalis, L.). — Tolerably com- 

 mon at all the localities visited by us. Breeding inland in a 

 valley running about eastwards from Green Harbour, Is Fjord 

 (July 27th). A brood of fledged young seen by Chapman in 

 Magdalena Bay (July 29th) on the talus at the foot of the cliffs, 

 and another brood on Axel Island (July 31st). Several shot by 

 various sportsmen in the southern fork of Bel Sound on July 

 30th. The specimens I brought home are in the black and white 

 summer plumage. 



2. Ptarmigan (Lagopus hemileucurus, Gould). — We fell in 

 with three Ptarmigan soon after landing in Green Harbour, Is 

 Fjord (July 27th). Chapman went after them and killed them all, 

 and also a fourth which he found a short distance beyond the 

 others. They were all old cock birds. Two, however, fell on to a 

 crag which he could not manage to scale; the other two he 

 kindly gave to me. They are incomparably the dirtiest and most 

 ragged wild birds I have ever seen, and look more as if they had 

 been prisoners among the stock of some Seven Dials bird-fancier 

 than birds killed in full possession of their native freedom, in the 

 wilds of Spitzbergen. The only other examples of this species 

 met with by any of our party were an old hen and her young 

 brood, just able to fly, on August 4th, also at Green Harbour ; 

 the party were in pursuit of Beindeer at the time, and were 

 armed with rifles only, so that they were unable to secure any 

 specimens. Prof. Newton, in his paper on the birds of Spitzbergen 

 in the ' Ibis,' April, 18G5, was then inclined to believe that the 

 present species is identical with the Ptarmigans of Iceland, Green- 

 land, and Arctic America, which three, he then thought, were pro- 

 bably identical. As to this I am unable to offer any opinion,* but 

 can only corroborate his remark as to " the larger size of the hyper- 

 borean bird," my two specimens being far larger than my recol- 



* Consult Dresser's 'Birds of Europe.' — Ed. 



