Mr. A. Newton on the Birds of Spitsbergen. 501 



bergen is twenty- seven, of which four are but stragglers, and 

 the remaining twenty-three really inhabitants, one only being, 

 so far as we dare presume, a resident throughout the year. 



I do not think it necessary that I should give any more 

 general description of this country than I have already done. 

 I should, have to copy the chief part of it from my friend's 

 admirable paper, which those who are most interested in the 

 matter will find, as I before stated, accessible to them at full 

 length in the pages of the ' Journal fiir Ornithologie' *. I there- 

 fore proceed at once to enumerate and remark upon the birds of 

 Spitsbergen. 



1, Falco, sp. ? '' Falco gyrfalco (Linn.),'' Malmgren, 1863, 

 op. cit. p. 113;- Id., 1864, p. 411. 



Dr. Malmgren mentions that on two occasions a large Falcon 

 was observed by some members of his party. This he ascribes 

 to Falco gyrfalco, though it seems to me it might just as well 

 have been either of its cognates F. candicans or F, islandicus. 

 I have therefore declined to give it a specific name. The first 

 time the bird was seen, it was by Petersen (the Greenlander so 

 well known as having taken part in many of the Franklin- 

 searching expeditions), on the occasion of a reindeer-hunt in 

 Wide Bay, on the 4th June, 1861, and the observation was 

 confirmed by the harpooner. The second occurrence was in 

 Treurenberg Bay a few days later. I can find no other record of 

 the appearance of any of the Falconidce in Spitsbergen. 



2. Nyctea nivea (Baud.). Stryx nydea, Malmgren, 1863, 

 p. 114; Id., 1864, p. 411. 



It is stated by Dr. Malmgren that an example of this species 

 was shot on a piece of floating ice between Verlegen Hook and 

 Shoal Point, 10th July, 1861, probably attracted thither by the 

 bodies of some recently killed walruses ; for it has long been 

 known, on Wrangel's authority, that the Snowy Owl is at 

 times a carrion- eater. Three days afterwards the specimen was 

 presented to the Swedish expedition, and it is now in the 



* A translation of the " Nya anteckningar," also from the pen of Dr. 

 Frisch, is appearing in that journal for the present year ; the first part of 

 it in the Heft for May, pp. 192-216; and the continuation is promised. 



