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Show 28 CAPT. H. W . FEILDEN O N T H E BIRDS O F [Jan. 16, January 16, 1877. Professor Newton, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. Mr. Sclater exhibited a collection of Mammals, Birds, and Insects which had been formed by the Rev. George Brown, C.M.Z.S., during his recent residence in Duke-of-York Island and his excursions to the neighbouring islands of New Britain and New Ireland, with the assistance of a collector, Mr. Cockerell. The general facies of the collection was strongly Papuan. Mr. Sclater pointed out the great interest which attached to the fauna of these islands, as showing many representatives of some of the most marked characteristic forms of New Guinea, and promised further details, on the collections which had been transmitted to him to be worked out, at a future meeting of the Society. A communication was read from Mr. G. Krefft, C.M.Z.S., containing some notes on a young example of Casuarius australis living in Sydney, which was destined for the Society's Collection. The following papers were read :- 1. On the Birds of the North Polar Basin. By Capt. H. W . FEILDEN, C.M.Z.S. [Eeceived January 16, 1877.] I shall endeavour in the few remarks I make this evening to draw your attention especially to the distribution of bird-life along the shores of the Polar Basin between the latitudes of 82° and 83°, the most northern land ever yet visited by human beings. I shall not allude to the ornithology of the West-Greenland shores and that of Baffin's Bay, which we are well acquainted with through the labours of Sabine, Holboll, Reinhardt, and several other excellent Danish naturalists ; but I will take you at one step to the 78° of N. lat. and draw your attention to the area lying between the 60° and 7o° of W . long., and as far north as the 83rd parallel of N. lat., which embraces Smith's Sound, Kane's Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall's Basin, Robeson Channel, and part of the shores of the great frozen Polar Basin. After pushing through the middle pack of Melville Bay and entering the "North Water" of the whalers, which usually extends in the summer months from Cape York to Cape Alexander, Arctic voyagers have always been impressed with the enormous numbers of the Little Auk (Mergulus aile) which frequent this region, attracted no doubt by the vast amount of suitable food which it contains. Mergulus aile breeds in countless numbers in the cliffs around Port Foulke; and for a most graphic account of the Aukeries I refer you to Dr. Hayes's description published in his interesting volume ' The Open Polar Sea.' At Port Foulke we found the surface-temperature of |