INTRODUCTION xiii 



I hope, will enable visitors to recognise most of the 

 species they may meet with ; any which they fail to 

 come to a decision upon should be carefully preserved, 

 with exact details of place, date, and anything else 

 noteworthy, and be submitted to some competent 

 ornithologist on their return home. 



I have to express my grateful acknowledgments to a 

 good many persons — to Professor Alfred Newton, to 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, to Mr. J. E. Harting, to Mr. 

 Benedikt Grondal of Reykjavik, to Mr. F. H. Water- 

 house, our helpful librarian at the Zoological Society, 

 to Mr. J. G. Millais, to Mr. P. Nielsen of Eyrarbakki, 

 to my friend Mr. St. Stephensson of Akureyri, and to 

 others, including my companions in Iceland at various 

 times, from all of whom I have had assistance in 

 different ways which has been of the greatest value 

 to me. 



Finally, I should like it to be understood that all 

 dates subsequently given for the appearance in, or 

 departure from, Iceland — or the nesting — of any par- 

 ticular species, are merely approximate. A late cold 

 spring, or an early winter, will modify them consider- 

 ably. 



The measurements of birds require a word of ex- 

 planation also. The ' length ' of a bird is the measure- 

 ment (with a tape or otherwise) from the point of the 

 bill to the end of the longest feather in the tail taken 

 in a straight line, and in the flesh — not from a skin, 

 which is often untrustworthy. The wing measure is 

 similarly taken from the ' shoulder ' (which, however, 



