THE BIRDS OF JAN MAYEN ISLAND. 7 



described to us a Falcon which had bred in the cliffs of the 

 Fljotsdalsheii, which we could only assign to this species. It 

 is not known to have occurred in Spitzbergen. The American 

 ornithologists do not include the type as a Nearctic boreal bird, 

 but the race F. peregrinus anatum (Bonap.) has a high range, 

 and is doubtless the species said to have a high northern 

 breeding range in Greenland. — W. E. C] 



Nyctea nivea, Daudin, Snowy Owl. — The Snowy Owl was 

 often and in different situations observed on the island, where it 

 winters. We failed, however, to shoot one. We saw the first on 

 19th October, 1882. In the uncertain light prevailing at the 

 time it was at first taken for a Burgomaster Gull. Its mode of 

 flight, however, struck me as peculiar, and we soon had an 

 opportunity of convincing ourselves that we were dealing with a 

 large Snow Owl. It flew around our station for many days, being 

 attracted by the poultry, but did not come within shot. On the 

 13th December, when returning from skating, we saw what 

 appeared to us a smaller kind of Owl, which swooped down upon 

 the dogs. I had no gun, — in fact, nothing in my hands, — other- 

 wise I could have killed it when it was at a distance of barely 

 three metres, hovering for several seconds at one place over the 

 dogs. I ran to the house for my gun : on my return I saw the 

 Snowy Owl sitting on a large stone block by the north lagoon. I 

 went up to her and shot at her breast as she was sitting there at 

 a distance of fifty or sixty paces, but she flew away, although hit. 

 On the 7th of January an Owl was seen. On the 14th of March 

 a Snow Owl was sitting on the top of the sailor's grave ; the dog 

 ran up to it and frightened it away. Our search for the bird was 

 unsuccessful, it being half-past eight in the evening, and already 

 pretty dark. In April, May, and June the Snow Owl was 

 repeatedly seen, sometimes on the ice, sometimes on land. Under 

 the Beerenberg many feathers of the Snow Owl were found ; the 

 bird was also seen there once. In winter, and especially in the 

 first weeks of spring, which brought very cold weather and 

 closed ice, all the birds drew off, and one could then see the Snow 

 Owl tugging away for hours at a hard-frozen bird, mostly the 

 remains of fox-meals. As Jan Mayen is not inhabited by any 

 small Mammalia, the food of the Snow Owl on this island 

 consists only of birds. In spring and autumn the exhausted 

 migratory birds offer prey easily to be obtained. In summer the 



