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SUPPOSED BREEDING OF THE BARNACLE- 

 GOOSE IN ICELAND. 



BY 



HEATLEY NOBLE. 



When in Iceland in the summer of 1913, we came across 



a general dealer, who was said to take an interest in 



birds. We called on him and were shown several boxes 



of common eggs for sale. There was nothing of any 



interest and we were leaving his store when he took up 



a bird book, and with a grin pointed to a very poor 



figure of Branta leucopsis. This man could talk no 



English, little Icelandic and only Danish, which our 



guide could hardly understand, but we made out that 



he had a nest and five eggs of the Barnacle-Goose. I 



told him this bird had never been known to breed in 



Iceland, and begged him, as well as I could, to let me 



see the clutch. After some hesitation and a good deal 



of pressing in various languages, he produced a box, 



carefully locked up, which on being opened contained 



five eggs and a considerable amount of down. Now the 



eggs of the Barnacle-Goose are very well known to me, 



and so is the down, as tame birds used to breed regularly 



on our lake. I have plenty of down and also eggs, so 



that I was not quite in the dark and I have no hesitation 



whatever in saying that those eggs were laid by a 



Barnacle-Go( se. The down is unlike that of any other 



European Goose with which I am acquainted ; the 



eggs are small, very white and have no gloss, in fact, are 



quite rough. The feathers in the nest were very marked 



and could only liave come from the species named. 



I offered to purchase the clutch, but the old man 



absolutely declined to entertain any idea of parting 



with his treasures. Our guide did what he could to find 



out what he was going to do with them ; he declined to 



make any remarks on the subject, locked up his eggs 



and politely hinted we could go. I thought it quite 



