INTRODUCTION 



I HAVE been studying the Birds of Iceland for some 

 fifteen years, ever since my first visit to that most 

 interesting country in 1885, and have often felt the 

 want, at first especially, of a handy manual on the 

 subject. But there is no such thing in the English 

 language. 



As the available information is scattered, largely in 

 driblets, amongst Icelandic, Danish, German, Latin, 

 and English books and periodicals, it has occurred to 

 me that it may be a convenience to English-speaking 

 ornithologists to have this information revised and 

 condensed in a handy form. 



And as, too, many of my fellow-countrymen visit 

 Iceland to fish, geologise, botanise, study their health, 

 or do nothing in particular — according to their various 

 ways of taking life — and a good many of them, from 

 my experience of them on board ship, seem inclined to 

 take more or less interest in the birds they meet witli 

 there, it is possible that a handy manual on the subject 

 may, in their case also, supply what is at present a 

 want. 



I have not been considering the ' mere collector,' and 

 have no wish to minister to his insatiable appetite for 



