VOL. X.J BREEDING OF BARNACLE-GOOSE. 188 



T could not undertake the journey. It was not possible 

 either to find anybody here who knew the birds, and 

 on whom one could rely, as the interest here in these 

 things is so small. 



" In 1911 I got some eggs which from size and the nest 

 feathers I could see were not the Helsingi Goose. In 

 1912 I made an excursion and obtained the five Helsingi 

 eggs which you saw, and which I believe are the first 

 and only ones fomid in Iceland. I hoped that I should 

 again find eggs this year, and made two journeys in 

 May and June but without any luck, as only the other 

 kinds of geese were to be found. 



" Perhaps I make another excursion next summer to 

 see if I cannot fuid these eggs, but I will do it myself. 



" I am also convinced that Calidris arenaria and Tringa 

 cinerea [I suppose he means the Knot] breed here, as I 

 have seen young ones which I am convinced belonged to 

 that kind, and people here cannot tell these birds from 

 others as they are not interested in the subject." 



I forgot to mention that the head and neck of a female 

 B. leucopsis, said to have belonged to the bird from the 

 nest, were with the eggs. Unfortunately the situation 

 of the nest was not given. In Greenland and Spitsbergen 

 these birds have been found nesting in cliffs, but there 

 are no rocks in this part of Iceland worthy of being 

 called cliffs. As stated by Howard Saunders (Mcmual, 

 2nd. ed., p. 410) a pair of Geese, which the late Professor 

 Collett was convinced were Barnacles, bred for several 

 successive years on one of the most northern of the 

 Lofoten Islands off the west coast of Norway. These 

 Geese built "sometimes on the narrow ledges of the rocks, 

 and sometimes in a sheltered locality under stones or 

 isolated rocky masses " (c/. Dresser, Birds of Europe, 

 Vol. VI.). 



The geese of Iceland have always been a mystery ; the 

 only species we saw were Grey Lags, but we were told 

 of a certain spot where White-fronted Geese bred regularly 

 and I know many clutches have been sent to this country 



