Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/138

134 of fragile land birds getting to Antarctic lands across the wide expanse of the stormy Great Southern Ocean, and also in part to the fact that, if they did arrive there, they would find hardly any suitable nesting-place, and would be without their necessary food supply on account of the scarcity of plant life, especially the practical absence of flowering plants and flower-visiting insects. Scoresby, in the neighbourhood of Scoresby Sound at Cape Swainson in 71° N. on the east coast of Greenland, says, "Numbers of winged insects, however, were met with, particularly on the hills among the stones. These consisted of several species of butterflies, with bees and mosquitoes! Near the beach were several plants in flower, with a few that were further advanced and in a state of fructification." What a paradise for Arctic land birds, and what a contrast to the barren rocks of Antarctica, almost completely obliterated with ice and snow! How could there be land birds in Antarctica?

Arctic land birds are full of interest, but it is impossible to enter into any detail concerning them here. The reader should look into the works of Seebohm, Feilden, Harvie-Brown and Pearson, as well as the delightful pictures of tundra life that Brehm gives. (For the natural history of Arctic birds reference should be made to the following:—From North Pole