412 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



met with about the latitude of Bear Island on our way south 

 (August 4th). There were still a few every now and then after 

 we were in sight of the Norwegian coast on the 6th, and the last 

 I saw of this species was near the head of Lyngen Fjord (east of 

 Tromso) on August 25th. To the collector, the Fulmar Petrel is 

 by far the most troublesome bird I have yet made the acquaint- 

 ance of, from its habit, when shot, of ejecting an oily fluid from 

 its mouth, which stains the plumage. I selected my specimens, 

 and tben took the utmost care in handling them, but one is never 

 safe until the skin has been actually removed. In marked contrast 

 to the general state of the case, as far as our observations went in 

 Spitzbergen, out of the thousands of Fulmars that we saw, we 

 did not observe one adult, all I believe, without exception, being 

 in a state of plumage intermediate between that of the adult and 

 young in its second summer, described by Yarrell (3rd edit, iii., 

 642). The curved point of the bill is yellow, the sides buff- 

 yellow, those of the upper mandibles being more or less streaked 

 with dark brown ; the sheath investing the nostrils almost black ; 

 the back and sides of the head a light ash-grey, getting darker on 

 the back and wings and tail ; a little brown on some of the wing- 

 coverts ; chin white in most specimens, all the rest of the under 

 side light grey, more or less approaching to white in some speci- 

 mens ; the primaries a dull blue-grey, hardly slate-colour ; feet 

 and legs bluish horn-colour. 



12. Brent Goose (Bernicla brenta, Steph.). — Rather plentiful 

 in Van Keulen Bay, Bel Sound, but not seen by us elsewhere. 

 The geese had all moulted their quill-feathers, and could not fly, 

 but this deficiency was in great measure made up for in their 

 extraordinary pedestrian powers ; not only the old birds, but the 

 goslings, some of which were, at the time of our visit (July 30th 

 to August 2nd) still in down, others half-feathered, easily outran 

 us on rough ground. Professor Newton {loc. cit.) has referred to 

 the confusion in the names for this species, which he supposes 

 led Professor Nordenskiold to believe that he had shot the 

 Bernicle Goose in Bell Sound in 1858, a species which has not 

 been met with in Spitzbergen by any other observer. Mr. Leslie, 

 the English translator of the ' Voyage of the Vega,' has " made 

 confusion worse confounded" by literally translating the trivial 

 names, so that the Bernicle Goose, Anser leucopsis (Jenyns) 

 appears as the " White-fronted Goose," and the Brent, to which 



