22 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



of ancient and more or less poetical and mytho- 

 logical names for this bird, if any one cares to go 

 and dig them up. I prefer to leave them decently 

 buried where they are. 

 A resident, formerly common, now rapidly decreasing 

 in numbers. The nests are harried and the adults 

 poisoned in many parts, because they interfere with 

 the duck preserves. Two fledglings we took from the 

 nest in 1884 had been fed by their parents on crow- 

 berries (of the year before, preserved under the snow) 

 and birds' eggs (of Whimbrel and Golden Plover). The 

 crow-berry is also called in Icelandic ' Krdkaber,' 

 which means the same as our name. I appended a 

 query in the Zoologist, April 1886, asking the en- 

 lightened public whether there was known to be any 

 special connection between this plant and the Corvidse, 

 beyond the crow-coloured berry, but got no response. 



We saw a plucky pair of Whimbrel attack a Eaven 

 near their nest, and ill-armed as they were, defeat him 

 with loss (of his own feathers, as well as of the eggs 

 he was lusting for; of dignity also, in a marked 

 manner). 



The Eaven bids fair to be a scarce bird in Iceland 

 before long. It breeds in March or April, or early in 

 May, in cliffs, usually in a very inaccessible place, but 

 sometimes in one ridiculously easy to reach. The 

 eggs — five, or sometimes only four, in number — are 

 placed in a loose untidy nest of sticks and general 

 rubbish ; the eggs are greenish-white in ground colour, 

 spotted, scribbled, and blotched with grey and black. 



