BIRDS OF ICELAND 29 



The bird is not likely to be mistaken for any other, 

 but I may as well say that its colour is brown (wing- 

 quills nearly black) ; the tarsus (lower part of the leg) 

 is bare of feathers in its bottom half. In old birds the 

 head turns a dirty white in colour and the tail quite 

 white. Length : males 28 to 30, females 33 to 36 

 inches. 



I once watched for some time two of these birds, 

 an old one and its progen}^, in the northern Eeykjadalr. 

 Careful instruction was being given, and the youngster 

 taught how to fly in large even circles above the water ; 

 also the old bird seemed to indicate what would be 

 the next lesson by ending up with several stoops on 

 what I took to be an imaginary fish below. I supposed 

 them to be mock stoops, because the bird checked 

 itself by spreading its wings long before it reached 

 the water, and once, if I was not mistaken, it stooped 

 when it was not above the water at all. They finally 

 went off together. 



Falco candicans, Gmel. 

 Greenland Falcon. 



Native name: Talki ' (?' Hvitifalki,' but this is more 

 descriptive, perhaps, than appellative). 



An occasional visitor, of which I have seen several 

 examples stuffed ; but they were only regarded as fine 

 specimens of the indigenous falcon, for the two species 

 are not discriminated in Iceland. There is one in 

 Consul Havsteen's drawing-room at Oddeyri, and one, 



