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



frittered away, leaving the nomenclature of the different Euro- 

 pean species in a very confused state. 



In Spitsbergen the Pink-footed Goose has been met with in 

 Wide Bay, lat. 79° 35' N. ; and probably it occurs all along the 

 west coast. It is most numerous in Ice Sound, where, as I have 

 said, Ludwig found a hatched-out nest, with two goslings, about 

 midnight between the 16th and 17th July. Dr. Malmgren 

 seems to have met with at least two nests in the upper part of 

 the Sound, from both of which he shot the female bird. One 

 of thera, killed on the 4th July near Advent Bay, he describes 

 fully in his last paper ; and he gave one of my friends an egg 

 from this nest, which is now in my possession. The second nest 

 was obtained at Mittelhook, in the same Sound, on the 10th 

 July, and the Doctor kindly presented me with a pair of its 

 eggs. Messrs. Sturge and Evans also gave me one of the eggs 

 they took in 1855. I have thus four very satisfactory examples 

 of this egg, which is so extremely difficult to procure authen- 

 ticated. They vary very considerably both in size and shape. 

 According to Dr. Malmgren, the species also occurs in Hinlopen 

 Strait and the Stor Fjord*. 



The two nestlings obtained by Ludwig differ somewhat in 

 appearance. They are both clothed in greenish-yellow down, 

 with patches of olive on the back of the head, lore, and region 

 of the eye, upperside of the wings, middle and lower part of the 



* I take this opportunity of calling attention to the fact, that we are very 

 ignorant as to the exact species of Goose \vhich breeds on the islets fringing 

 the coast of Norway, from Throndhjem northwards. I have seen the birds 

 on many occasions ; but I have never been able to handle a specimen, as 

 the localities they frequent are most jealously guarded by the inhabitants, 

 and no guns are allowed to be used upon them. Almost all Scandinavian 

 naturalists, excepting Pastor Sommerfelt (CEfver. Vet.-Akad. Forh., 1861, 

 p. 86), declare that the species is A. segetum; but, judging from the pale 

 grey pinions of those I have seen near me, I doubt the fact ; and when I 

 passed up the coast in 1855, I was inclined to consider it A.ferus. Now 

 that I have ascertained A. brachyrhynchus to be the big Goose of Spits- 

 bergen, I venture to suggest that it is also this which breeds on the coast 

 of Norway, though, so far as I am aware, the species has not hitherto been 

 recognized in Scandinavia ; but that it must at least occur there is self- 

 evident. If any of my readers should be visiting the extreme north of 

 Norway, I would ask them to try and identify the species of Goose which 

 breeds abundantly at Tamso, in the Porsanger Fjord. 



