INTRODUCTION xiii 



I hope, will enable visitors to recognise most of the 

 species they may meet with; any which they fail to 

 come to a decision upon should be carefully preserved, 

 with exact details of place, date, and anything else 

 noteworthy, and be submitted to some competent 

 ornithologist on their return home. 



I have to express my grateful acknowledgments to a 

 good many persons — to Professor Alfred Newton, to 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, to Mr. J. E. Harting, to Mr. 

 Benedikt Grondal of Reykjavik, to Mr. F. H. Water- 

 house, our helpful librarian at the Zoological Society, 

 to Mr. J. G. ]\Iillais, to Mr. R Nielsen of Eyrarbakki, 

 to my friend Mr. St. Stephensson of Akureyri, and to 

 others, including my companions in Iceland at various 

 times, from all of whom I have had assistance in 

 different ways which has been of the greatest value 

 to me. 



Finally, I should like it to be understood that all 

 dates subsequently given for the appearance in, or 

 departure from, Iceland — or the nesting — of any par- 

 ticular species, are merely approximate. A late cold 

 spring, or an early winter, will modify them consider- 

 ably. 



The measurements of birds require a word of ex- 

 planation also. The ' length ' of a bird is the measure- 

 ment (with a tape or otherwise) from the point of the 

 bill to the end of the longest feather in the tail taken 

 in a straight line, and in the flesh — not from a skin, 

 which is often untrustworthy. The wing measure is 

 similarly taken from the ' shoulder ' (which, however. 



