96 BIRDS OF ICELAND 



Tringa alpina, Linn. Dunlin. 



Nati'cc names: 'L6u];raeir ('Loa's,' i.e. Golden Plover's 

 ' thrall,' cf. ' Plover's page '). In J)ingeyrar Sysla 

 there is another name for this bird, which Herra 

 Grondal spells ' Hei'Sarlaepa ' in Skyrsla and 

 ' HeiSarloepa ' in Islllndische Vogelnamen. It means 

 ' Heath-trotter,' 



A summer visitor, common in marshy places and by 

 lakes and rivers, except in the barren interior. We 

 only saw two pairs, as far as I recollect, on the 

 ArnarvatnsheiSi in 1900. The nest is usually well 

 concealed in a grass tussock in a marsh, and is lined 

 with a little grass, and the four eggs are light greenish 

 drab, spotted and blotched with dark umber brown. 

 Length, 1^^ inches. As is the case with most of the 

 Limicolffi (Waders) both sexes incubate. 



The Dunlin in breeding dress is dark above, with 

 the feathers margined with buff and chestnut ; light 

 below, and wears a conspicuous black patch on the 

 chest, unlike any other small Wader. Length about 

 8 inches, wing 4^ inches. 



But there is a small race of Dunlin, which breeds in 

 Iceland and which Brehm {Vog. Deutsclil., p. 663, 1831) 

 named T. schmzii. But in 1826 Bonaparte had named 

 an American bird (better known as T.fuscicollis Vieill.) 

 Tringa schinzii also. So that we have ' T. schinzii Br! 

 and ' T. schinzii Bp.,' and sad confusion has arisen from 

 this, especially since ' T. schinzii Bp.,' or Bonaparte's 



