BIEDS OF ICELAND 111 



The Arctic Tern is not likely to be confused with 

 any other bird visiting Iceland. It has a black cap ; is 

 blue-grey above, pearl-grey below ; bill and feet bright 

 red ; tail deeply forked, and the whole bird of a slender 

 and elegant build. Length 14| inches, wing 10 inches. 

 No other species of Tern has been ascertained to occur 

 in Iceland, though Mr. Baring Gould suggests that he 

 saw the Common Tern, and I have an idea that I 

 have seen a similar statement in a guide-book or 

 somewhere. 



Their normal food consists of small fish (of useless 

 shore species, mostly) and shrimps, and other Crustacea. 

 What they feed upon inland I do not remember, 

 beyond the recollection that they eat insects of any 

 kind they can get. They are liable to vicissitudes 

 in this respect; in 1885 we found great numbers of 

 the downy young dead, some in the nest, some about 

 anywhere, on the Myvatn islands. Their stomachs 

 contained nothing but tapeworms, tliafc we could see. 



Larus canus, Linn. Common Gull. 



Native name : None. 



This Gull is unaccountably scarce in Iceland — un- 

 accountably, because it breeds numerously all round 

 the coasts of Norway. But it is not as uncommon 

 in Iceland as is generally believed. Grondal only 

 records one occurrence, but Professor Newton picked 

 up a skin in Eeykjavik in 1858 ; and I certainly 

 saw three at the same time, tiyiug about in the 



