BIEDS OF ICELAND 7 



extinction, especially since Preyer (Beise) described it 

 as being 'niclit haufig ' in 1860. On my arrival at 

 Eeykjavik, however, in June 1900, Herra Grondal 

 assured me that he had had the bird sent to him in 

 the flesh within the last few years; and Governor 

 Stephensson, the brother of my Iceland ' guide, philo- 

 sopher, and friend ' — and Madame Stephensson also — 

 informed me that they had certainly seen it not many 

 years since. 



By good fortune, we met with it ourselves, a week 

 or two later. Mr. Dugmore and I Avere searching a 

 scrubby birch wood, many miles from Eeykjavik, 

 whereof the trees, which were few, and the bushes, 

 which were many, grew on the outskirts of an ancient 

 and ragged lava-flow of great extent. We were at the 

 moment hoping to find a belated nest of the Eedwing 

 with eggs, which were a desideratum in Dugmore's 

 cabinet, when, all at once, I heard a wren sing, and the 

 effect was almost as startling for the moment as if a 

 native had attempted to 'snipe' me from behind a 

 neighbouring boulder. I stopped dead — but the rest 

 of us did not, and the mischief was done. Though I 

 waited some time, the bird was obviously startled, and 

 had flown elsewhere. But I was confident that my 

 ears had not played me false, and till late in that 

 afternoon we walked that rugged tract ; I with my 

 ears pricked up, so to speak, all the time. Moreover, 

 I looked at every rock-face and mossy cranny in the 

 many little dingles there, in the hope of seeing a wren's 

 nest. And I found one — an old one, but the real 



