BIRDS OF ICELAND 105 



ing, no doubt, tliat it flocks on the coasts in spring on 

 arrival, and in autumn previous to departure, as it 

 does in England. 



Limosa belgica (Gmel.). Black-tailed 



GODWIT. 



Native nainc: 'JaSrakan' (with variants, 'JarGreka, 

 'JaSreki,' older 'ja(5rakarn '). This name can be 

 explained to mean ' earth -shoveller ' (JorS — reka) 

 but Grondal prefers to consider it a Gaelic word 

 'adharcan' (Lapwing), borrowed, and applied to 

 the wrong bird. ' Ja'Srakarn ' occurs in the Younger 

 Edda. 



A summer visitor, arriving in April (1st May, accord- 

 ing to Nielsen), breeding only, as Faber states {Pro- 

 droT/ius, p. 25) in 'Arnes and Rangarvalla Syslur in 

 the south-east, leaving the country in the beginning 

 of September. Very seldom met with elsewhere in 

 Iceland, even as a wanderer. 



The nest is a slight affair of grass amongst sedge or 

 other long herbage in a marsh, and the four pear- 

 shaped eggs are of a pale olive brown with darker 

 brown spots — coloured very much like the Whimbrel's 

 eggs — and measure about 2J inches long. 



The bird in summer has the head, neck, and breast 

 light chestnut, with dark stripes on the crown, and 

 black bars on the breast ; mantle brown, blotched with 

 black ; belly, rump, and a bar across the wing, white ; 

 tail-feathers black, with white bases. Leu's and bill 



