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



have observed in my synopsis of the group (P. Z. S. 1856, 

 p. 243), rather abnormal, having the bill less compressed and 

 more nearly resembling that of a typical Tanagra. 



-^ XXXIX. — Notes on the Birds of Spitsbergen. By Alfred 

 Newton, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 



[Concluded from page 219.] 



Spitsbergen is one of those countries which has long shared 

 the questionable privilege of being accounted the home of various 

 birds which are either extremely rare, or have their summer re- 

 treats little known. Some of my oological readers cannot fail 

 to have had misgivings, and these not always slight ones, that 

 certain of their high-priced egg-treasures may not after all have 

 been brought from the distant region which their vendors assigned 

 to them as the land of their birth. Many such readers, I am 

 afraid, will derive little comfort from the perusal of the latter part 

 of these notes : but I feel sure there will be others sufficiently 

 stout-hearted to discard at once from their collections the reputed 

 eggs of the Knot, the Grey Plover, and I know not how many more 

 birds, when they now find there is no reason to believe that any 

 of these species frequent Spitsbergen. That the ornithological 

 exploration of the country is far from being complete I of course 

 freely admit ; but at the same time it will be seen from the fol- 

 lowing catalogue of the birds hitherto observed there, that a 

 good deal has been done towards getting an accurate knowledge 

 of its Oryiis, and especially with regard to the species which ac- 

 tually breed within its limits. 



The earliest account of the ornithology of Spitsbergen with 

 which I am acquainted is that contained in the Voyage of Fre- 

 derick Marten or Martens (for I find the name spelled in both 

 ways). This is one of those delightful old books which one 

 cannot take up without feeling revived and invigorated by the 

 freshness and originality of its quaint sentences. It is, of 

 course, not free from ridiculous blunders which every school- 

 boy in these days could detect; but the errors and absurdities 

 have a charm of their own, and they are all those proper to the 

 prehistoric age, so to speak, of natural science, while the infor- 



