306 



the birds. when sitting, almost touch one another. On Renø near 

 Vardø, for instance, upwards of 20 eggs of this and Uria trotte 

 were discovered under one fragment of rock. Under such cir- 

 cumstances there is little probability of each bird being able to 

 single out and keep to its own egg. 



Large numbers of this bird and other species breeding on the 

 ,,Fuglevær" are caught in the spring in nets. Most of the indi- 

 vidual* leave Finmark at the approach of winter and repair in dense 

 flocks to the southern shores. 



Al ca impennis , Lin. 



As yet — I make bold to say — there is no conclusive evid- 

 ence of a single example of this species having occurred within the 

 confines of the country. That it may, in exceptional cases have 

 strayed to our shores, is a possibility that no one, I presume, will 

 preiend to doubt; but when I have passed in review the various 

 facts, advanced with the express purpose of giving it an acknow- 

 ledged place in our fauna, I shall endeavour to show that not one 

 of them affords satisfactory proof in that direction. 



In the year 1762, Strøm 1 records this species in his „Be- 

 skrivelse over Søndmør" as abundant in the spring of the year both 

 on the fjords and off the coast of Søndmøre, in Bergen Stift, where 

 it occurs in large flocks; he also gives a description. defective 

 indeed, but still sufnciently plain to recoguise the bird of its 

 general appearance, and states emphatically that no Norwegian 

 author had previously recorded the species. 



The correctness of Strøm's observation has long been doubted. 

 It is true, that Nilsson and Steenstrup are both agreed in supposing 

 that his description may possibly be to somr ertent in accordance 

 with fact, ..for he must indeed have had one or more of these 

 birds before himr but the large numbers in which he alleges they 

 appear must necessarily refer to some other species, in all prob- 

 ability to Harclda f/lacialis. 



I will now endeavour to show, that Strøm most likely never 

 saw a specimen of Alm impetmis in his life, and that the descrip- 



1 «,1'hysisk og oecon. Bcskr. over Fogderiet Sondmor, Soro 1762, u p. 221. 



