26 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



Asio accipitrinus (Pall.). 

 Short-eared Owl. 



Native name : ' Ugla.' 

 Occasional visitor of rare occurrence. Its claim to 

 a place in the Icelandic list rested for many years on 

 the uncertain basis of a plate in 'Olafsson's Reise. 

 Herra Grondal, however, records three modern in- 

 stances of its occurrence in Skyrsla (p. 34), all in the 

 south, and Herra P. Nielsen {Ornis, 1887, p. 157) one, 

 obtained at HraungerSi in Arnes-Sysla, October 5, 

 1877, and one at Eyrarbakka, September 30, 1879. 

 He expresses an opinion that Faber's Strix ahico 

 (Prodromus, p. 4) may be referred to the present 

 species, in which view I quite concur. I may add 

 that a specimen, which I take to be of this bird, was 

 procured for me in the early spring of 1894, some time 

 before my visit to Iceland in that year, in the Melrakka 

 Sletta (' Fox Plains ') in the north-east ; but they were 

 so unsuccessful in making a skin of it that they 

 thought it not worth sending — to -my infinite regret, 

 as it would have been sufficient to identify the bird 

 as a visitor to the northern parts of the island. 



Nyctea scandiaca (Linn.). Snowy Owl. 



Native names : ' Snjo-ugla,' ' Snreugla,' ' Nattugla,' 

 ' Kdttugla.' 



An occasional winter visitor, chiefly to the northern 

 parts. Like seveial other Arctic species, its visits 



