166 
Messrs. Evans and Sturge on the 
copied by Mr. # Yarrell in his last edition above mentioned. Now, 
at the time I first read it, I had a suspicion that there was some 
mistake here, which further inquiries have much tended to 
strengthen; but as the author of the paper (Mr. J. J. Briggs) 
has kindly undertaken to pursue the subject further, I need say 
no more about it, beyond expressing my full conviction that the 
birds in question will be found to have been the North-American 
Wood, Carolina, or Summer Duck (Aix sponsa, Boie), which, as 
is well known, will breed freely in this country, and whose 
beautifully varied plumage causes it to be often called by dealers 
by the name rightfully belonging to that species which is the 
subject of my somewhat lengthy remarks. 
XVIII.-— Notes on the Birds of Western Spitsbergen , as observed 
in 1855. By Edward Evans and Wilson Sturge. 
Partly inspired by a love of Natural History, but more by a 
desire for adventure, we were induced to visit Spitzbergen in 
the summer of 1855, before a trip to that island was so common 
as it seems likely now to become; and though we were somewhat 
disappointed in not finding it so rich in ornithology as we had 
expected, a short notice of the species we observed there may not 
be unacceptable to the readers of e The Ibis/ as we believe that 
hitherto the only published account of the birds of this, the 
most northern known land of the Old World, is that contained 
in the Zoological Appendix to Parry's Eourth Voyage, by James 
Clarke Boss*. 
Our vessel, the c Anna/ was a fishing-smack of 30 tons 
register, a fast boat; and had it not been for calms, adverse 
gales, and fields of ice, we might, with a fair breeze, have easily 
made the run from Hammerfest (in the north of Norway), our 
port of departure, in three or four days. But at Bear Island the 
ice forced us to make a circuit of upwards of sixty miles; thus 
we were retracing our course almost the only time that we had 
* Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole in Boats fitted for 
the purpose, and attached to His Majesty’s Ship f Hecla/ in the Year 
1827, under the Command of Captain William Edward Parry, R.N., 
F.R.S. London, 1828. 
