Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 497 



mation with which they are mixed up is nearly always curious and 

 often valuable. Of this work I have not seen the original edition, 

 published, I believe, at Hamburg in 1675 ; but there is an English 

 translation of a date not many years later now lying before 

 me *. Seventeen species of birds are described by the author. 

 Thirteen of them are figured by him in his plates ; and these, with 

 one more, are recognizable enough. The remaining three are the 

 " Ice-bird ^^ (p. 74), "John of Ghent ^^ (p. 97), and "a Black 

 Crow" (p. 98). The first is probably the Ptarmigan of the 

 country, and the last may have been a Stercorarius in whole- 

 coloured plumage. With regard to the second, which the Dutch 

 now call by the same name, it must be remarked that Marten 

 really does not include " John of Ghent" as a bird of Spitsber- 

 gen — saying that " when he cometh to the ice he turns back 

 again " f- 



Nearly a century later Commodore Phipps (afterwards Lord 

 Mulgrave), in an appendix to the narrative of his voyage, gave 

 a list of the twelve species of birds observed by him in Spits- 

 bergen J. One of these (though, as it would seem from further 

 investigation, miscalled) is not included by Marten ; but all the 

 rest can be referred to that voyager^s descriptions. " Larus 

 eburneus," however, for the first time receives scientific recog- 

 nition, not having been noticed by previous systematic authors. 



* An Account of several late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and 

 North. Towards the Streights of Magellan, the South Seas, the vast Tracts 

 of Land beyond Hollandia Nova, &c. Also Towards Nova Zembla, Green- 

 land or Spitsberg, Groynland or Engrondland,&,c. By Sir John Narborough, 

 Captain Jasmen Tasman, Captain John Wood, and Frederick Marten of 

 Hamburgh. London: 1694. 



t The Gannet is of only occasional occurrence in the Norwegian seas 

 (Wallengren, ' Naumannia,' 1854, p. 281). According to Herr Malm 

 (Kroyer's Tidsskrift, 2 ser., i. p. 211), it appears in the winter on the 

 coast of the Arctic Ocean ; but this assertion receives no support from 

 Pastor Sommerfelt (CEfvers. K. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 1861, pp. 67-90). The 

 statements of Yarrell, that it '' is found in the Baltic, as high as the Gulf of 

 Bothnia" (B. B, iii. p. 384), and of Degland that it is " common on the 

 coast of Norway" (Orn. Eur. ii. p. 384), are incorrect. 



X A Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken by His Majesty's com- 

 mand, 1773. By Constantine John Phipps. London : 1774. App. pp. 

 186-189. 



