38 VISIT TO ICELAND 



the bird is blind and only gets its sight when it is in the 

 water, but it has capital ears. Of course, there is some 

 mistake here. In the water it swims deep with its head 

 cocked up, and does not keep dipping its bill as Razor- 

 bills and Guillemots do. Some old fellows say that there 

 are always as many eggs found as birds, which can only 

 be accounted for by the supposition that the cocks and 

 hens relieve each other. It is therefore a point of con- 

 siderable importance whether two eggs or one were found 

 in 1846, and we have been unable to get satisfactory 

 evidence respecting it. If as one man says there were 

 two, there must have been other birds out fishing at the 

 time the boat landed, and then there is a strong pre- 

 sumption that the bird was not exterminated in that 

 year. Wolley is much more sanguine about success than 

 I am, and I think more than he has a right to be ; but 

 at the same time I am not more desponding than I have 

 always been about it. 



June 2. 



The steamer passed Reykjanes the afternoon before 

 last. I am in hopes that I may get letters to-day ; but 

 people have such odd notions of the necessity of doing 

 anything at once in this country that I have my doubts. 

 I forgot to say that on the 24th largeish flocks of Knots 

 arrived, which were increased on the following day. They 

 were very wild and it was only after several trials that 

 we shot one, which proved to be a male and well advanced 

 in plumage. Yesterday they had diminished in numbers, 

 and to-day I have not seen one. By far the greater part 

 of the Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers too have gone ; 

 so also Dunlin and Golden Plover, and I have not seen a 

 Sanderling now for nearly a week. I suspect Grey 

 Phalarope breeds hereabouts occasionally; a man says he 

 found a " Randbrustling ' nest on an islet here once, 

 and this name though properly applicable to the Knot, 

 is also used for the other Redbreast, and this man spoke 

 of its swimming in the water like " Odin's Hani " (Red- 

 necked Phi.). We have again tried digging for Great 

 Auks' bones, but without success. We are endeavouring 



