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



Scoresby is the next author who treats of the ornithology of 

 Spitsbergen. In his excellent work ^ he enumerates seventeen 

 species as forming its avifauna; but several of them are cer- 

 misnamed, and especially two — his " Fringilla linaria " being 

 probably, as Dr. Malmgren suggests {op. cit. p. 88) the young of 

 the Snow-Bunting, and his "Tringa hypoleucos," with equal like- 

 lihood, the Purple Sandpiper. His " Larus crepidatus " is of 

 course one of the Stercorarii ; but which species, it is not easy 

 to determine. 



To the narrative of Parry's ever memorable fourth voyage 

 Sir James Ross contributed an Appendix on the Ornithology of 

 Spitsbergenf, giving twenty-one species of birds as found there. 

 Probably only one of these [Charadrius hiaticula) is a real addi- 

 tion to the avifauna of the country as given by Scoresby. Of the 

 other three not a trace has been found by later explorers. 



Almost simultaneously with Parry's departure from the nor- 

 thern shores of Spitsbergen, Keilhau arrived at the southern. 

 This distinguished geologist mentions J eleven species of birds 

 as occurring there. In his determination of one of them, Larus 

 marinus, he is certainly wrong ; and I hesitate much to accept 

 his statement respecting another, Charadi^ius morinellus, an ex- 

 ample of which he says he found lying dead on the roof of a 

 hut at the entrance of the Stor Fjord. 



In 1843 was published Admiral Beechey's account of Captain 

 Buchan's voyage of 1818, referred to in the earlier portion of 

 this paper. There are not many ornithological facts to be 

 gathered from the work. Somateria spectabilis § is noticed 

 (p. 100) as breeding on the islets in Fair Haven, but it is clear 



* An Account of the Arctic Regions, &c. By William Scoresby, Jun,, 

 r.R.S.E. Edinburgh : 1820. Vol. i. pp. 527-538. 



-j- Narrative of an attempt to reach the North Pole, &c., in the year 

 1827, under the Command of Captain William Edward Parry, R.N. ,F.R.S., 

 &c. London : 1828. App. pp. 193-198. 



J Reise i (Est- og Vest-Finmarken samt til Beeren-Eiland og Spitsber- 

 gen, i Aarene 1827 og 1828. Af B. M. Keilhau. Christiania: 1831, 

 p. 163. 



§ This species was said by Temmiuck, in 1820 (Man. d'Orn., 2 ed., 

 p. 852), to be abundant in Spitsbergen ; and the statement has been copied 

 Ijy many other writers. On what authority it was made, I know not. 



