VOL. VI.] LETTERS. 287 



[My own experience is of course confined to the south-west of Iceland, 

 and I have seen nothing at preseiit of the north, hut it is clear to me 

 from what has been recorded by Messrs. Pearson and the Rev. H. H. 

 Slater, that the Grey Lag is the " Grey " Goose of South Iceland. 

 When we remember that Faber, Grondal, and Nielsen mention 

 " Anser sc'/ctum" (i.e. A. fahalis) as the ordinary Grey Goose, and 

 omit all mention of the Grey Lag (Anser anser), it is impossible to 

 avoid the inference that the two species have been confused and that 

 the Grey Lag has been mistaken for the Bean-Goose, of which no 

 Icelandic specimen is known to exist. Many supposed clutches of 

 eggs of A. fahalis, from Iceland, are to be found in English collections, 

 sent in good faith by Icelandic collectors, and which are really attri- 

 butable to Anser anser. The feathers are really more usefid in 

 distinguishing the various species of geese than the dow ns, and I have 

 found no difficulty in distinguishing authentic clutches of A. brachy- 

 rhyncJms by the size of the eggs and the appearance of the flank- 

 feathers from those of Anser anser or A. fahalis. There is little doubt 

 that a large proportion of the eggs in private collections are wrongly 

 identified, and no inferences as to the colour of down, etc., can be 

 drawn from such dubious material. — F. C. R. Joxtrdain.] 



LARGE CLUTCHES OF EGGS LAID BY BIRDS IN ICELAND. 



To the Editors of British Birds. 



Sirs, — The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, in his interesting article on 

 the bird-life of Iceland (supra, pp. 234-45), calls attention to the large 

 clutches of eggs produced by many of the Passerine birds breeding in 

 that far-northern locality. This coincides with my own somewhat 

 limited experience during a brief visit to the Dovre Fjeld in Norway 

 in the summer of 1911 : I examined nests of the Fieldfare, Bluethroat, 

 Brambling, Reed-Bimting, Wliite Wagtail, and Meadow-Pipit, all of 

 which contained six eggs. Except in the case of the Fieldfare, I did 

 not see a nest of any of the species enumerated containing less than 

 six eggs, and one clutch of seven Meadow-Pipit's eggs came vmder my 

 notice. Howard Bentham. 



