86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



yards of me. The death of the Reindeer was the signal for all 

 the Glaucous Gulls in the valley to congregate around us. Like 

 Vultures in the tropics, they assembled from each side of the 

 glen, and the gralloch was hardly removed from the quarry before 

 fifty of these great white gulls were tearing and fighting over it. 

 On running up from where I fired to where the deer fell, I nearly 

 put my foot on a Purple Sandpiper, which bustled off her nest 

 and four eggs. Putting my cap over them, I returned shortly to 

 pick them up, and the Sandpiper was running round and round 

 within a few feet of my cap, but on seeing me crouched and made 

 off, like a mouse, amidst the short herbage. The nest was a 

 slight depression lined with moss and a few dried leaves. Three 

 more Reindeer were seen further up the glen, and they allowed 

 me to approach so near that I shot another with hardly the 

 pretence of a stalk. It seemed so cruel to shoot these confiding 

 animals that I made up my mind not to do it again, and I kept to 

 this resolution. My companion and I had hard work dragging 

 the carcases of the two deer to the sea-shore ; our strength would 

 not allow of carrying them another six miles to the ship. On 

 sending for them the next day only their skeletons and hides 

 were found ; the Glaucous Gulls had picked them to the bone. 

 The experience of my shipmate, Colonel Bond, who went out 

 after Reindeer in another direction at the same time as I did, 

 was very similar to my own. Meeting with a buck and two does, 

 he shot the former ; the latter, instead of making off, came within 

 three yards and smelt at him. Like a good sportsman, his rifle 

 was likewise returned to its case, and the animals required for 

 the ship's larder were shot by the sailors. 



During July 2nd, Bond and I went in the steam-launch 

 towards the head of Advent Bay. The water there is so shallow 

 we could not get within half a mile of the muddy shore in the 

 launch, but we landed from a light skiff we had in tow. Our 

 object was to visit the small lake mentioned by Mr. Lainont an 

 the place where he met with both Brent and Bernacle Geese. 

 It seems to me very unlikely that so experienced a sportsmai 

 and good field-naturalist could by any possibility be mistaken ii 

 his identification of these two species. I quote his words;* 

 4< There is a pond a little in-shore at the end of Advent Bay, anc 



* Op. cit. pp. 284, 285. 



