48 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



which they consider to be their own for the time, the 

 resident pair at once advance to the attack, the male 

 leading, the female in reserve close behind ; and the 

 intruders are only ejected after a great deal of trumpet- 

 ing and chasing and swaggering, which is most amusing 

 to watch. The nest is sometimes placed on an islet, 

 sometimes on a spit of land, sometimes in a secluded 

 marshy spot close to a mountain loch ; it consists of 

 a conical heap of moss and vegetable rubbish, with a 

 few willow sticks and twigs of Blaber {Vaccmium 

 uliginosiim). The nests are evidently used year after 

 year, with a little repairing and furbishing up, con- 

 sisting chiefly of a fresh lining of moss and grass. 

 Therefore they get very solid in time, being sometimes 

 four feet in diameter at the base and nearly a yard high. 

 In the cavity at the top are placed the eggs, from three 

 to six in number, elliptical in shape, of a creamy white, 

 soon dirtied by muddy feet ; they vary a good deal in 

 size, e.g. in a set of five from the same nest (I took 

 them myself) the length varies from 3f to 4f inches. 

 Eggs are laid from the middle of May to the middle 

 of June, according to the earliness of the season and 

 the amount of snow and ice on the fells. We saw 

 cygnets on June 22. I have repeatedly seen swans 

 come within easy shot of me on horseback, and they 

 certainly are a grand feature of the landscape, and add 

 a singular attraction to the wild and desolate regions 

 where they live. 



They do not invariably live in desolate regions, how- 

 ever. There is a singular phenomenon connected with 



