415 



On the arctic coasts of Asia it would appear that this species replaces C. glacialis altogether, 

 this latter species not having been met with, so far as I can ascertain, further east than the 

 White Sea. According to Prof. Palmen (' Vega'-Exped. p. 403) at the winter-quarters of the 

 expedition at Pitlekaj the natives brought in three old birds on the 3rd July, 1879, obtained a 

 short distance inland; and Lieut. Palander, on a long expedition to the south of Pitlekaj, shot a 

 female on a lake which had its nest containing one egg on the shore. The egg was chocolate- 

 brown, with greyish-black shell-markings and black surface-spots, and measured 94 by 55 - 5 

 millimetres. Von Middendorff says (7. c.) it breeds on the Taimyr River, but is rare there ; aud 

 Mr. Pleske writes that the specimen obtained by von Middendorff on the island of Kildin, on 

 the Murman coast, Kola Peninsula, in September 1840, and recorded as C. glacialis, which 

 is now in the St. Petersburg Museum, is referable to the present species. Mr. Trevor-Battye 

 says (B. of Kolguev, p. 439) that he saw it on the west coast of Kolguev on the 15th and 

 again on the 23rd June; and Mr. H. J. Pearson writes (Ibis, 1896, p. 225) that he saw 

 one on Wilczek Lake, Novaya Zemlya, but did not shoot it; and Mr. C. E. Pearson and the 

 Bev. H. H. Slater saw one on a small lake near Belootcha Bay. In both cases the light- 

 coloured bill could be clearly distinguished. 



In Norway it was first recorded from the Flekke Fjord, in the extreme north of that country, 

 in November 1875, but Professor Newton informs me that he saw a specimen in one of the 

 Norwegian Museums in 1864. Since then its occurrences have become more frequent, and it is 

 now stated by Professor Collett to "visit the coasts of Norway annually, especially during the 

 autumn and winter, in some years even in considerable numbers, and specimens of it are now 

 preserved in several of the museums of this country. The winter visitors usually appear in 

 October, and most of the specimens hitherto examined have been obtained during the period 

 from October to December. They consist of both young of the year and adults. Of the latter 

 some are one-year-old individuals, which still (in the second winter) continue to bear their grey 

 plumage, and some are in full summer plumage, or changing from it to the grey winter plumage 

 of the third year. 



" During their visits to the Norwegian coasts these birds, on some occasions, penetrate to the 

 interior of the southernmost fjords (for instance, the Christiania Fjord) ; but most of them appear 

 to stop on the northern shores. Thus they were very numerous in the neighbourhood of Tromso 

 and several other places to the north of the Polar Circle during the winter of 1892-93, but only 

 a small number, which were shot and offered to museums, were preserved. They also appear to 

 be numerous during the present winter, 1893-94, in some places perhaps even more common 

 than C. glacialis. They disappear, as a rule, during the spring and summer, although it is not 

 improbable that stray individuals pass the summer without breeding on the shores of Norway." 



The above extracts are taken from an excellent, monographic article on the present species 

 (Ibis, 1894, pp. 269-283) by my friend Professor Robt. Collett, of Christiania, which I have 

 found most useful in writing the present article. 



It has certainly occurred in Great Britain on several occasions. Mr. J. H. Gurney possesses 

 a specimen which was shot early in the spring of 1852 at Pakefield, near Lowestoft; the late 

 Dr. Churchill Babington figured an immature bird in his ' Birds of Suffolk ' which is supposed 

 to have been obtained in that county ; and there is a specimen in the Newcastle Museum which, 



