VOL. VI.] BIRD-LIFE OF ICELAND. 245 



" charge " in turn, we noticed that every attack was 

 dehvered from the same direction, whether we faced 

 them or turned ovu^ backs, and it soon became evident 

 that the regulating factor was really the direction of the 

 wind, the birds preferring to charge against it. The 

 Arctic or Richardson's Skua {S. parasiticus (L.)) shows 

 no tendency to breed in colonies, but isolated pairs are 

 to be met with in many boggy places among the hills. 

 Both light and dark breasted birds were met with. 



Guillemots, Razor-bills and Puffins were breeding in 

 vast numbers on the Vestmann Islands. Hantzsch 

 ascribed the Iceland- breeding Puffins to the northern 

 form {Fratercula arctica, glacialis 8teph.), but his view is 

 not accepted by Le Roi and other writers. It is however 

 noticeable that a couple of eggs which we found on the 

 cliffs in the Vestmann Islands can be picked out at a 

 glance from a series of British-taken eggs, by their superior 

 size. Of the Icelandic Ptarmigan [Lagopus rupestris 

 islandorum (Faber)) we saw next to nothing, but the 

 birds are undoubtedly common on the hills, and large 

 numbers are killed in the winter months. 



In the Museum at Reykjavik we saAv a Bittern shot 

 at Fljutshlid in 1904, and received through Herra 

 Nielsen. It was labelled B. stellarls, but looked much 

 more like B. lentiginosus. Neither species has been 

 recorded from the island previously. Herra Nielsen, to 

 whom our thanks are due for much kindness and hos- 

 pitality, informed us that he was preparing a revised 

 hst of the Birds of Iceland for publication in the Dansh 

 OrnitJi. Foren. Tidsskrijt, in which this and other rarities 

 will be duly recorded. 



For permission to reproduce the photographs with 

 which this paper is illustrated, I have to thank my 

 friends Mr. C. H. Wells and Mr. J. Wilkinson, who 

 kindly placed them at my disposal. 



