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



each contained one egg. The nest was artless and without con- 

 nexion^ and consisted of a shallow depression, 8 or 9 inches 

 broadj in loose clay and mould on a sublayer of limestone. 

 Inside it was carelessly lined with dry plants, grass, moss, and 

 the like, and also a few feathers. The eggs were much incu- 

 bated, and already contained down-clad young. Both the hen- 

 birds were shot upon their nests, and are now in the National 

 Museum. The cocks were at first observable, but they vanished 

 when we began the work of reaching their nests.^' 



The locality just mentioned will not be found marked on any 

 English chart. It lies at the north-eastern entrance of Hinlopen 

 Strait, in about long. 18° 30' E., and was first accurately sur- 

 veyed by the Swedish Expedition. I am, however, inclined to 

 think that the Ivory- Gull breeds sporadically on many other 

 parts of Spitsbergen proper. Several of the examples we shot 

 both in Ice Sound and the Stor Fjord had their bellies bared of 

 feathers, as usual in sitting birds ; but I could not learn from any 

 of the walrus-hunters we met that they had ever discovered a 

 breeding-place, except that our pilot told me that a ship^s boat 

 which, in 1859, succeeded in reaching Giles' Land, found many 

 Ivory-Gulls' nests on its lonely shore. This species, like other 

 Gulls, probably does not always breed in colonies ; and as it is 

 sure to select the most inaccessible places for that purpose, an 

 occasional nest here and there on the mountains or crags might 

 well escape notice. Mr. Wolley, as I remarked before the Zoo- 

 logical Society (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 401), was told of a breeding- 

 place which the Qusens in their language called " Porro Vaara " 

 {i. e. Reindeer Hill), but I have since ascertained that this name 

 is often applied to a considerable portion of Spitsbergen ; the 

 information therefore is less precise than I formerly thought. 



11. RissA TRiDACTYLA (L.) ; G. R. Gray, List B. Brit. Mus. 

 (1844), pt. iii. p. 174, exempl. /; Evans and Sturge, p. 169; 

 Malmgren, 1864, p. 387. " Kutge-gehef," Marten, p. 82, 

 tab. N. fig. a. Larus rissa, Phipps, p. 187 ; Scoresby, i. p. 534. 

 L. tridactylus, Ross, p. 195; Torell, p. 64; Malmgren, 1863, 

 p. 104. 



This very common bird appears to frequent the whole of the 



