* 
404 Capt. H. W. Feilden on the Birds observed 
Parr some three miles north of the ship. 15th May, whilst 
travelling up a valley (lat. 82° 40- N.) in Grinnell Land, our 
party disturbed a Snowy Owl from the ground. Subsequently 
this species was not unfrequently observed; a pair seemed to 
frequent and breed in each large valley running down to the 
sea-shore. On the 24th June we found a nest of these birds 
containing seven eggs (lat. 82° 33 ; N.) ; the nest was a mere 
hollow scooped out of the earth, and situated on the summit 
of an eminence which rose from the centre of the valley. 
Several other nests were found in the vicinity of winter- 
quarters, and at one time there were six or seven line young 
birds caged on board. In the vicinity of Discovery Bay 
(lat. 81° 44' N.) this Owl bred abundantly. During the 
month of August, while proceeding southwards, it was no 
uncommon circumstance to see one or more of these birds 
occupying a conspicuous post on the bold headlands we were 
passing under. By the end of the month all had disappeared. 
The food of the Snowy Owl in Grinnell Land appears to con¬ 
sist entirely of the lemming (Myodes torquatus ). Hundreds 
of their cast pellets, which I picked up and examined, con¬ 
sisted of the bones and fur of these little animals; and the 
stomachs of all I opened contained the same. 
3. Plectrophanes nivalis. Snow-Bunting. 
After passing the 78° of north latitude this species is not 
met with in the same numbers as in the neighbourhood of 
the Danish settlements of West Greenland, but is dispersed 
generally along the shores of Smith Sound and the Polar 
Basin. On the 28th August, 1875, at Shift-rudder Bay 
(lat. 81° 52 / .N.), I observed a flock of about eighty, and a 
second, in which I counted over twenty, flying south. 14th 
September, Lieutenant Parr met with a solitary individual in 
lat. 82° 35' N.; and the last one I observed that season flew 
past the ship on the 24th September. 
I first heard the note of this bird when travelling, on the 
13th May 1876, in lat. 82° 35' N.; the following day I ob¬ 
served one; and after that day they were frequently met with. 
On the 27th May Lieutenant Parr, on his journey from the 
