CLOSE SEASON" FOR BIRDS IN ICELAND 

 {Law dated Decemher 16, 1885.) 



By this law Terns, Snow-Buntings, Meadow-Pipits, 

 Wagtails, Wheatears, Thrushes, Wrens, and Finches 

 are not to be killed at all. All other birds, excepting 

 Eagles, Falcons, Merlins, Ravens, Skuas, Large and 

 Small Gulls, Saw-billed Ducks, Divers, and cliff birds 

 (Gruillemots and Razorbills), are protected from April 1 

 till July 20 ; Puffins from May 10 till June 20 ; Petrels 

 (including Fulmars) from March 1 till August 10. 

 Neither net nor gun are to be used in taking Puffins 

 or Petrels. 



No restriction is therefore made in the matter of 

 taking the eggs of any bird, except that those of the 

 Eider Duck are protected by another enactment. Con- 

 sequently the eggs of all birds are systematically taken 

 all over the country — partly to eat, partly, in the case 

 of rarer birds, to sell to foreigners. If the Althing 

 does not intervene, and regulate in some measure the 

 taking of eggs — and before long — several species must 

 be exterminated, as at present they can hardly succeed 

 in rearing young in Iceland at all. 



