Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 213 



entertain very little doubt ; and I shall have more to say further 

 on concerning the comparative dimensions of the two species, 

 which enable one to discriminate between them. But 1 may 

 here remark that F. glacialis has never yet, so far as I know, 

 been represented in any work ', both Mr. Gould and Mr. Audu- 

 bon having given figures of a third and entirely distinct species 

 (J^, corniculata, which I believe to be confined to the most 

 northern parts of the Pacific Ocean) under the name proper to 

 the Spitsbergen bird. I therefore take the opportunity of illus- 

 trating this paper by the accompanying plate (Plate VI.), exe- 

 cuted by Mr. Wolf, from specimens brought home by me. 



On the morning of the 22nd, as I have said, we started by 

 boat for the yacht, leaving the sloop to follow as she best could. 

 Our voyage down the Sound was uneventful. As we were near- 

 ing Safe Haven, my attention was called to a Duck flying past 

 us, which seemed to me somewhat diflferent from an ordinary 

 Eider, though I could scarcely say in what manner ; and one of 

 my companions, whose seat in the boat gave him a more favour- 

 able view of the bird than did my own, assured me it had a 

 yellow bill. I have therefore little doubt it was a King-Duck ; 

 and on reaching the yacht, late in the evening, Ludwig informed 

 me he had been in unsuccessful chase that very day of three 

 other birds, which he described to correspond with that species. 

 The next day I crossed over the ridge, forming the east side of 

 the Haven, to an accessible cliff, where Ludwig told me he had 

 found Rotches breeding. With the help of a rope, he got up 

 to the crevices whence issued certain croaking sounds ; and on 

 my bending the gun-picker out of my knife into a rude hook, 

 and lashing it to the end of my walking-stick, he at length 

 extracted from the holes two Rotches which had not been many 

 days hatched. Queer little things they were, thinly clothed in 

 black down, through which their blue skins appeared. While 

 engaged in this operation, several old Rotches came round us, 

 perching close by on the pinnacles and ledges, without much 

 timidity; and one was caught alive in the hole with its offspring. 

 We could not find an egg, not even a rotten one, but fragments 

 of hatched-out shells were lying about. Ludwig afterwards 

 showed me the site of the Goose's nest I have before mentioned. 



