NOTES OF A NATURALIST ON SPITZBERGEN. 411 



10. Richardson's Skua (Stercorarius crepidatus, Vieillot ; H. 

 Saunders, P. Z. S., 1876, p. 326). — A large flock of Kittiwakes, 

 which followed the ship all day on July 24th, when we were to the 

 north of the Norwegian coast, were continually waited on by 

 Richardson's Skuas, of which there were usually from three to 

 six, or more, in sight at once ; the next day, in the neighbourhood 

 of Bear Island, we only saw a single individual, sitting, looking 

 rather unhappy, on a detached piece of ice. This species is 

 common and seems generally distributed along the coast, and we 

 saw a few as much as half a dozen miles or more inland, east of 

 Green Harbour, on July 27th. None observed off Vogelsang, 

 our highest point north. On our return to Green Harbour, 

 August 3rd, I only saw one individual, and by the date of our 

 return to Tromso (August 9th) there was only an occasional 

 straggler to be seen about the Fjord. We found a pair in Van 

 Keulen Bay on August 1st with young hatched out. The efforts 

 of the old birds to draw us away from their young were most 

 amusing. Though we devoted a considerable time to the search, 

 we did not discover the young, though I found one of the egg- 

 shells. All the specimens observed by us were of the white- 

 breasted variety. 



11. Fulmar Petrel (Procellaria glaeialis, L.). — First observed 

 on July 24th in the open sea, to the north of Norway, one or 

 more being in sight nearly constantly all day, and getting more 

 numerous as we proceeded northwards, and by the time we 

 entered Is Fjord we found them very abundant. They were 

 rather numerous for several miles inland east of Green Harbour. 

 At Magdalena Bay we found a " white -whaler " lying, with skins 

 of this cetacean floating in the sea all round her, preparatory to 

 being stowed away in her hold. Swarms of Fulmars were swim- 

 ming close round the vessel's sides, elbowing and jostling each 

 other, gorging on the scraps of blubber they obtained from the 

 skins, and as tame as domestic poultry. We found we could 

 catch them with a hook and line, baiting with a small scrap of 

 " spek," literally almost as fast as we could haul them on board. 

 On shooting some Ivory Gulls at this place, which dropped into 

 the water, it was only by keeping up an unremitting cannonade of 

 stones that I could keep the Fulmars off them until I could secure 

 my specimens. They were common as far north as we went, and 

 were among the few species of birds observed among the ice we 



