The Birds of Angmagsalik. 213 
pletely melted away from the thicket and the bushes were budding, 
although blossoming had not commenced. The willow thicket was 
obviously dependent upon the rich supply of water; for outside its 
domain there was, as over most of the mountain foot, a thick heather 
heath on which the willow was rare and, with its gnarled offshoots, 
only reached 15 to 20 em. above the ground. In the thicket bloom the 
wall-cress (Arabis alpina); club-moss (Lycopodium annotinum) and а 
sort of fern (Aspidium dryopteris) are fresh, green and fully 
developed. The other wood-land plants have not flowered yet. But 
everything smells so fresh, with that homely smell of the soil, and is 
so green, that one imagines a much more southerly latitude. In addition, 
insect life is abundant. Large black long-legged spiders run about on 
the soil, small grey butterflies flit about in company with bees, while 
there are swarms of flies and midges — the latter rather more than is 
comfortable, although they have not yet become the plague they were 
at our second visit to the place.” 
The vegetation in а locality is all-important to the insect life, and 
the possibility of small birds being able to subsist in a place essentially 
depends upon this factor. East Greenland is not particularly favourably 
situated as regards vegetation and, as a consequence, has no great 
abundance of insects either; in this respect it cannot be compared with 
West Greenland. Of beetles (Coleoptera) there are 9 species, of bees 
(Hymenoptera) 18, of midges (Diptera) 45 and of butterflies (Lepido- 
ptera) 18. 
For many of the water birds it is essential that the waters contain 
fish, and, even if fish do not abound, there are sufficient of a few kinds 
to provide food for the sea-birds. In all the streams and inland lakes 
there are salmon trout, and in the lakes sticklebacks too. In the sea 
there are two kinds of cod in large numbers and, what is of most im- 
portance, shoals of capelans (angmagsæt), from which the whole district 
has its name. The bigger and more rare fish are scarcely of any importance 
in this respect. 
The reason for going fairly deeply into the exterior conditions of 
the Angmagsalik district, particularly its vegetation, is to give an idea 
of the conditions which offer to induce the birds to sojourn and breed 
here. It will be seen that there is so much variation in the localities 
that there must be an opportunity for a number of birds to breed. The 
larger and smaller lakes suit the Divers, while out in the fjords there 
are comparatively low islands, good breeding places for Gulls and Terns. 
