98 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



Tringa subarquata (Glild.). 

 Curlew Sandpiper. 



Native name : none. 



Professor Newton was informed by the late William 

 Proctor, who has been so often mentioned above, that 

 he had received several specimens of this bird from 

 Iceland. Proctor was in some degree the mentor of 

 my youth, as he taught me to stuff birds and did not 

 in any way repress the tendency to ornithology with 

 which I was born. And I know that he could not well 

 be mistaken respecting such a bird, well known on our 

 British coasts. At the same time, unlike the Knot 

 and others, it is not a bird which we should expect to 

 visit Iceland, as its breeding-grounds (as far as we 

 know them) are not in America, but in North Asia ; and 

 therefore it would go north-east from us and nowhere 

 near Iceland. The bird has not been met with in Iceland 

 since, and so far its occurrence there rests on Proctor's 

 testimony. (See Newton, lUs, 1864, p. 132.) 



Tringa striata, Linn. Purple Sandpiper. 



Native names : ' Sendlingur ' (Sand-haunter), also 

 'Selningur,' a variant which, as Herra Grondal 

 says, is meaningless. Professor Newton adds 

 'fjalla-fcela' as a name for this species in summer 

 dress, but Grondal does not mention it, nor have 

 I met any one who recognised it as a bird name. 



A resident, common on the shores in winter, breeding 



