BIRDS OF ICELAND 29 



The bird is not likely to be mistaken for any other, 

 but I may as well say that its colour is brown (wing 

 quills nearly black) ; the tarsus (lower part of the leg) 

 is bare of feathers in its bottom half. In old birds the 

 head turns a dirty white in colour and the tail quite 

 white. Length : males 28 to 30, females 33 to 36 

 inches. 



I once watched for some time two of these birds, 

 an old one and its progeny, in the northern Reykjadalr. 

 Careful instruction was being given, and the youngster 

 taught how to fly in large even circles above the water ; 

 also the old bird seemed to indicate what would be 

 the next lesson by ending up with several stoops on 

 what I took to be an imaginary fish below. I supposed 

 them to be mock stoops, because the bird checked 

 itself by spreading its wings long before it reached 

 the water, and once, if I was not mistaken, it stooped 

 when it was not above the water at all. They finally 

 went off together. 



- Falco candicans, Gmel. 

 Greenland Falcon. 



Native name: 'Falki ' (?' Hvitifalki,' but this is more 

 descriptive, perhaps, than appellative). 



An occasional visitor, of which I have seen several 

 examples stuffed ; but they were only regarded as fine 

 specimens of the indigenous falcon, for the two species 

 are not discriminated in Iceland. There is one in 

 Consul Havsteen's drawing-room at Oddeyri, and one, 



