412 Messrs. P. L. Sclater and W. A. Forbes on the 
4-23. Somaterta spectabilis. King-Duck. 
I did not obtain-this bird in Smith Sound during the autumn 
of 1875 ; but in the end of June 1876 several flocks of males 
and females, numbering from ten to twenty individuals, were 
seen near Floeberg Beach (lat. 82° 2 7' N.). Most of these 
fell a prey to our gunners; but those that escaped settled down 
to breed along the coast, and several nests were found with 
fresh eggs in them from the 9th to the middle of July. 
-i_24. Bernicla brenta. Brent-Goose. 
During the first week of June, parties of these birds arrived 
in the vicinity of our winter-quarters (lat. 82° 2 7 r N.) ; for 
some days they continued flying up and down the coast-line, 
evidently looking out for places bare of snow to feed on. 
They were very wary, and kept well out of gun-shot range. 
On the 21st June I found the first nest with eggs, in lat. 82° 
33' N.; subsequently many were found. When the young are 
hatched the parent birds and broods congregate on the lakes or 
in open water spaces near the shore in large flocks ; by the end 
of July the old birds were moulting and unable to fly, so that 
they were easily secured, and afforded most valuable change 
of diet to our sick. The flesh of this bird is most excellent. 
The gander remains in the vicinity of the nest while the 
goose is sitting, and accompanies the young brood. In one 
instance where I killed a female as she left her nest the gander 
came hissing at me. 
XXXY .—On the Nesting of the Spoonbill in Holland. 
By P. L. Sclater and W. A. Forbes. 
That the Spoonbill ( Platalea * * leucorodia) breeds in Holland 
is a fact well known to every ornithologist; and most egg- 
collectors are aware that specimens of its eggs obtained in that 
country are to be purchased at a very cheap rate in the 
* Mr. Dresser (B. Eur. pt. 23-24) uses Platea as the generic name of 
the Spoonbill instead of Platalea. It may he hoped, however, that this 
is a mere oversight, and that Mr. Dresser is not prepared to dissent from 
the canon that Linnean names are to remain inviolate. 
