30 COLLETT AND NANSEN. ACCOUNT OF THE BIRDS, [norw. pol. EXP. 



eburnea) wherever any refuse blubber^ was to be found, or a walrus or a 

 bear had been cut up. They were very troublesome, making it necessary to 

 cover up carefully all stores of blubber and meat with skins and stones, other- 

 wise all blubber would soon have been pecked away by them. 



Even towards the end of September, when the winter hut had been 

 built, they were quite common, and, like the ivory gull, they almost every 

 day and night alighted on the roof of the hut itself, to eat the remains of 

 blubber still adhering to the walrus-skins covering it, and they were not a 

 little troublesome Avith their persistent tapping on the frozen skins all night 

 long. About the middle of October, when everything for miles round was 

 covered with ice, some few young glaucous gulls still remained, daily visiting 

 the roof of the hut, or the frozen bear-skins lying near it; and they were the 

 last birds seen from the hut that year. 



After the winter was past, the first specimens were seen at the hut on 

 the 9th April, 1896 (P. eburnea and Fulmarus both having appeared con- 

 siderably earlier), and soon began once more to visit the roof of the hut, 

 as they had done in the autumn. During the journey south, they were seen 

 frequently, right down to Cape Flora, though not in such abundance as either 

 Fulmarus or Pagophila. 



Fagophila eburnea, (Phipps) 1774. 



This bird was observed in large numbers all through the sledge-journey 

 after May, 1895. With its impertinent ways, and shrill, angry cry or scream, 

 it was, in spite of its beauty, anything but a welcome companion. Like 

 the carrion-birds in the desert, the same individuals often seemed to follow 

 the travellers for a long time. They grew continually bolder, and at last 

 were so tame that they ventured right into the tent to steal blubber. 



As an example of their boldness, the following incident may be men- 

 tioned. One day (August 15th, 1895), when Nansen was asleep, lying on 

 the ice with his head close to the side of his kayak, which was standing on 

 the sledge, he was awakened by hearing a tapping close to his ear, and 

 raising his head, saw an ivory gull pecking eagerly at a piece of blubber 



' L. glaucm, as well as Pagophila eburnea, very much prefers the blubber to the flesh, 

 in this respect resembling the bear, while the fox 'prefers the flesh. 



