BIRDS OF ICELAND 



shifting again, but this time I stood with my gun 

 ready. Shortly, out came the bird again, and made, 

 very shakily, for a rock some twelve yards off. I gave 

 it all the law I dared, and fired just as it reached the 

 rock, and saw it stagger against tlie side of a hole and 

 fall in. Unfortunately the hole opened directly into a 

 long narrow sloping crevasse (if I may use the word of 

 lava rock) which appeared to go straight down to New 

 Zealand, or somewhere even warmer. 



We walked a good deal more, and each heard the 

 wren again, but got no sight of it. So we returned to 

 the manse where we were staying — I, at least, with 

 feelings of keen disappointment: I detest above all 

 things failing to gather any creature whose life I have 

 taken. My friends kindly insisted upon our intended 

 departure being put off for another day, so next 

 mornin^f found us foraorin" the lava and birch tract 

 again. We walked much of yesterday's ground ' with- 

 out a whimper,' and then proceeded in a new direction. 

 I was rather ahead, and was looking for the nest of a 

 pair of Phalaropes beside a little tarn, as Dugmore had 

 never taken their eggs, when, fifty yards to my front, 

 amongst the. lava and birch scrub, rang out the well- 

 known song. I went quietly back to Dugmore, and 

 together we advanced cautiously, taking opposite sides 

 of a lava ridge from which I judged the sound had 

 come. I heard Dugmore shoot, and had the pleasure 

 — at last — of handling an Iceland specimen of the 

 Northern Wren. 



All this excitement and fuss about a little bird will 



