BIRDS AT REYKJAVIK 33 



We left Reykjavik on the 19th, having stayed there all 

 the time from our arrival, the spring being so backward 

 that it was said to be impossible to get grass for the 

 horses, and thereby travelling was rendered very difficult. 

 Of course, it was a great bore being weatherbound in the 

 metropolis as it was not lively, and a very bad place 

 ornithologically speaking. Besides this we were almost 

 in a chronic state of intoxication from the unnecessary 

 amount of hospitality we had to endure, but as it was all 

 meant as civilly as possible one had nothing to do but 

 abide it, and certainly no people could have put them- 

 selves in the way of doing all we wished (with this one 

 exception) than everybody we met. I told you before 

 of the readiness with which they allowed Mr. Eric Mag- 

 nussen to start off for us to the Eastern Great A. rocks, 

 and in due time the young man left us in very good 

 heart, and I hope he has now arrived at the point on the 

 coast opposite to it. What the result of his journey may 

 be, we may not know for another six weeks. He was 

 also commissioned to look after some Falcon's eggs, but 

 we thought it best as he was not an ornithologist not to 

 embarrass him with other subjects. Reykjavik, as I said 

 before, is a very bad bird place, and very little, if anything, 

 of any consequence breeds in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, excepting perhaps Glaucous Gull, which is said to 

 be on some of the islands in the Fjord, but these we could 

 not find any trustworthy person to look for, and of course 

 taken by any one else, they would be of no value, for 

 there are quite enough Grt. Black backs about. The 

 only birds I saw of them up to the present time have 

 been young ones, and the same with Iceland Gulls. 

 Several people in the place make a sort of trade in selling 

 skins and we bought some at moderate prices, but 

 nothing of any rarity. One fellow had a small immature 

 Gull killed last winter, which we got from him. I am 

 not sure whether it is L. ridibundus or not, but none of 

 that group have been yet found in the country. We got 

 also nearly a dozen falcons' skins, nearly all Icelanders 

 but one or two Greenlanders. For a real white Greenlander 



