viii BIRDS OF ICELAND 



the acquisition of as many egg-shells of rare birds as 

 possible. If he makes his living by dealing in such 

 things, it is unfair to condemn his objects altogether; 

 but the worst offenders in this direction, I am afraid, 

 are more or less well-to-do amateurs. In the case of 

 the rarer species, therefore, I have purposely been as 

 vague as possible in mentioning localities. The Great 

 Auk is gone for ever — I do not think that the mere 

 collector had very much to do with that — but there 

 are two or three other species, the extinction of which 

 as breeding birds in Iceland does not seem very far off. 

 Amongst these are the Grey Phalarope, the Black- 

 tailed Godwit, and the Little Auk; and the Iceland 

 Falcon also is rapidly decreasing in numbers. In these 

 and other cases, this is owing to the wholesale taking 

 of their eggs, which the Close Season law in Iceland 

 does not regulate in any way. 



There is a great deal of literature bearing on the 

 subject. It begins with Snorro Sturleson, w^ho, with his 

 nephew Olaf Thordsson, wrote the 'Younger,' or ' Prose 

 Edda,' begun about 1150 and finished about 1250. It 

 is chiefly mythological, but contains, amongst other 

 things, a tolerably complete list of bird-names of the 

 period. Most of the names are those in use in Iceland 

 to-day, but there are a good many birds mentioned {e.g. 

 the Kite, Cuckoo, Stork, Sparrow-hawk) which have 

 never been seen in the country, so that, though valu- 

 able etymologically, the Younger Edda does not throAV 

 much light upon Icelandic ornithology as we under- 

 stand the term. About the middle of the eicrhteenth 



