MU. U. SEEBOfIM ON THE BIRDS OF THE LENA DELTA. 301 
I. 
ON THE HIRDS OF THE LENA DELTA. 
Ly Henry Seebohm, F.Z.S. 
Read 2 ']th April, 1886 . 
A VERY important contribution to the geographical distribution 
of Birds in the Arctic Regions lias recently apjieared in the 
‘ ^lelanges Biologi([ues tir 6 s du Bulletin de I’Academie Iinperiale 
des Sciences de St. Petersbourg,’ xii. livr. i., pp. 31 — 107, 1884. 
The information is contained in a letter from Ur. Alexander Bunge 
addressed to Dr. Leopold von Schrenck, the ■well known author ot 
‘ Reisen und Forschuugen im Amur-Lande.’ The letter is dated 
from Sagastyr, 30th March, 1834, and gives the result of the 
ornithological and other observations made during the year 1883 at 
the Russian I’olar station. Authorities ditfer as to the exact 
latitude and longitude of the delta of the Lena, but Nordenskiold 
places it in the same latitude as the delta of the Yenesay, so that 
it is probable that Sagastyr lies about latitude 731°, perhaps 1^° 
further north, and 44° further east than Golcheeka, the highest 
point -which I reached in the valley of the Yenesay. 
The valley of the Lena is probably colder than that of the 
Yenesay. Dr. Bunge states that the mean temperature never rose 
above freezing point between the 20th of September and the 
2Sth of !May. The ice on the river, ■which had attained a thickness 
of six feet, began to break up on the 8 th of June, and had all 
disappeared by the 25th. On the 29th of May the first insect was 
seen, and a month later the first flowers appeared. 
Fai.co gyrfalco (?). An example of one of the various forms of 
Jer- Falcon was obtained from a Yakut. It was a young female, 
and had been caught in a fox-trap. 
