BIRDS OF ICELAND 31 



purposeless and unfeeling way of too many Engiisli 

 gunners with sea-birds. 



Falcons breed early, often in the end of April or 

 beginning of May, and place their nests, which are 

 made of sticks and twigs, on a ledge of a cliff, laying 

 usually four eggs, but sometimes three only. These 

 have a ground colour of pinkish white, or light red, 

 and are spotted thickly and blotched irregularly with 

 different shades of rusty red; they are roundish in 

 shape, and from 2j to nearly 2J inches in length. 

 After the young have left the nest, the ground under- 

 neath will be found to be strewed with bones, mostly 

 those of the Rock Ptarmigan, which seem to be their 

 favourite food. There is an Icelandic fable that the 

 Falcon screams in agony, when eating a Ptarmigan, as 

 soon as he reaches the heart, finding then for the first 

 time that he has killed his long-lost sister. However 

 this may be, a passing Falcon once enabled us to deal 

 satisfactorily with a covey of Ptarmigan which we 

 had previously found unapproachable, which was not 

 fraternal. The Falcon happened to pass almost over 

 them, and we found them perfectly amenable after 

 that. Falcons are strong birds, and need as a rule 

 large shot to stop them, but I once, rather to my 

 surprise, killed one quite dead with 'No. 10 shot (we 

 were looking for snipe, and he appeared unexpectedly, 

 and the shot was by no means a near one). 



The Iceland Falcon is a remarkably handsome bird ; 

 its plumage may briefly be described as ash-grey above 

 (white on the back of the neck) with darker grey and 



