BIRDS OF ICELAND 27 



usually coincide with severe winters and springs, when 

 there is a good deal of Greenland ice on the coasts. 

 Dr. Kjerulf informed Mr. W. E. Clarke that an adult 

 Snowy Owl had been shot at HallormstaSir (SuSur 

 Miila Sysla) in the cold summer of 1882, and others 

 seen — ' no doubt a family party from a nest somewhere 

 in the neighbourhood,' Mr. Clarke adds. In support 

 of this suggestion, I may mention that Mr. J. G. 

 Millais has described to me in a letter that he watched 

 one of these birds hunting a river (the Sog, not far 

 from the foot of ];ingvellir Lake) for fish, ' exactly like 

 an Osprey,' and saw it seize a char, ' which it carried 

 off out of sight, doubtless to its young.' This would 

 be some time in June or July 1889, and from these 

 two statements it appears that the Snowy Owl remains 

 occasionally to breed in Iceland, in spite of the absence 

 of its favourite prey, the lemming. 



It seems to occur in the Melrakka Sletta (north-east) 

 as frequently as anywhere ; and I have the skin of a 

 female from thence, shot in the winter of 1897, and 

 one of my companions in 1900 picked up a fine skin 

 at Oddeyri, which I believe came from the same place. 



It is enouoh to describe it as a huge white owl, 

 the male nearly 2 feet, the female 26 to 28 inches, 

 or even more, in length. In younger individuals the 

 white plumage is more or less spotted and barred with 

 black, especially on the head, back, and shoulders ; this 

 is by degrees lost with increasing age, and the very 

 old birds have no black except on the claws, bill, and 

 pupil of the eye. 



