170 
Messrs. Evans and Sturge on the 
most unfortunately, as it turned out, only preserved the skin of 
one (a female/ specimen. This has since been submitted to 
John Gould, and that celebrated ornithologist, being convinced 
of its specific distinctness from any other known species of the 
genus, has described it in the f Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society of London 5 for 1858 (p. 354) under the name of Lago- 
pus hemileucurus. It is therefore unnecessary for us to give a 
detailed account of this new European bird; we need only say 
that it can be at once distinguished from the Common Ptar¬ 
migan [L. mutus, Leach) of Great Britain and Scandinavia by 
its much larger size, which fully equals that of the Willow 
Grouse [L. albus, Bp.), and from this again by its tail, the 
basal half of which is white. The general plumage of the 
female in summer much resembles that of the female Common 
Ptarmigan at the same time. All the males we saw were still 
in the winter dress, though their white feathers had become very 
dirty; but the females had changed. In the same neighbour¬ 
hood one of us found a nest of this bird—if nest it could be 
called, being formed only of a few long stems of dry grass bent 
down in a trench-like hollow in the barren fjeld (or high table¬ 
land), where the snow had been thawed, or perhaps been blown 
away, which latter might have been the case, so bleak and ex¬ 
posed was the situation. There were two eggs, which resemble 
those of others of the genus. One of them measures 1*6 inch 
in length by 1*22 inch in transverse diameter. We trust that 
any future visitors to Spitzbergen will not fail to bring back a 
large series of these birds, and especially to observe whether 
their voice or habits differ in any respect from those of the 
common species, and whether, too, this latter may not be found 
there as well. 
Besides the birds we have before mentioned as occurring 
here, we saw some Arctic Terns, and a few Snow Buntings 
(Plectrophanes nivalis, Mey.). Observing a great many Little 
Auks flying in and out of the cliffs, we took our wire-rope, 
and one of us was let down the precipice; but both they and the 
Black Guillemots built in such deep and narrow crevices, that it 
was only after much hard labour in picking and breaking the 
rock with a hammer that the hand could be inserted. In this 
