236 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



rather conspicuous in this barren country, and their 

 sweet song was an agreeable surprise, for the Buntings 

 are not remarkable for musical talent. Slater seems 

 to understate the number of eggs laid, for the average 

 clutch is apparently six, while seven occur not infre- 

 quently, and eight have been recorded. 



The only Pipit which is known at present to breed in 

 Iceland is the Meadow-Pipit {Anthus j)ratensis (L.)). It 

 is quite one of the commonest birds, breeding in holes 

 in the sides of the big hummocks covered with turf or 

 ling, into which the ground is broken by the action of 

 rain and melting snow, so that the nest is quite sheltered 

 from above. It lays not four to five eggs, as stated by 

 Slater, but five or six and occasionally seven, which 

 vary extraordinarily in colour and markings. Where 

 there was much birch-scrub these birds were frequently 

 to be seen perched in the bushes, looking more like 

 Warblers than Pipits. I have often noticed that the 

 Meadow-Pipits, which pass through Derbyshire on migra- 

 tion in the spring, are much more arboreal in their 

 habits than our resident or partly-resident birds, and 

 it seems possible that they may be Icelandic birds on 

 their way north. White Wagtails [MotacUla alba alba L.) 

 replace our Pied Wagtail, breeding in the loose walls 

 of the sheep-folds and under boulders, and laying five 

 to seven (not four or five) eggs, but do not appear to 

 be plentiful. The characteristic Thrush of the island 

 is the Redwing [Turdus musicus L.), which is found 

 wherever there is any growth of scrub, though in most 

 places it has been recklessly cut down and destroyed. 

 It is quite common in the birch-woods by the Sog 

 River, and four or five males were singing from all the 

 most prominent points on the vast wall of rock M'hich 

 borders the road up from Thingvellir through the 

 Almanns Rift towa.rds Reykjavik. While scrambling 

 among the broken rocks bej^ond the Rift, we put a 

 Redwing out from a crevasse partly blocked by fallen 

 lava blocks, and were surprised to find a nest in a 



