84 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



some little hesitation, he came right up to the 

 little one immediately between my legs and fed it 

 there. I doubt very much if such remarkable 

 tameness is to be found in any other feathered 

 creature in existence. The Red-necked Phalarope 

 is an extraordinary bird in many ways. Besides 

 being a wader and having webbed feet like the Coot, 

 it is polyandrous. The female has two husbands, 

 and after the young are hatched one or other of 

 these domestic gentlemen undertakes the whole 

 duties of tending the young. The female is also 

 by far the more beautiful of the two sexes, and to 

 this reason we may possibly trace the plurality of 

 mates, seeing that the handsome males of the Game 

 or other birds are polygamous. 



As already mentioned, the ponies had done a 

 big march of sixty-five miles on this day, and yet, 

 since they were only loosely hobbled on the forelegs, 

 they managed to run away seven or eight miles to 

 the hills to escape the flies. Next day we moved 

 back to the Skalfandi Laxa, where I got nineteen 

 big trout of over 5J Ibs. each in the swim above the 

 waterfall, and, continuing our journey the following 

 day and into part of the night, reached the Eyra 

 Fiord opposite Akuyreri after a ride of fifty miles. 



Here my sister thought it a good opportunity 

 to go to Jansen's and have a bath; but this the 

 people seemed to regard with some suspicion as 

 an intention to introduce innovations they had 

 never heard of before. However, after a good deal 

 of talk, the good pastor, Jacomsen, came to the 

 rescue, and she was told that she might have a 

 bath in four hours' time in the hospital three doors 

 off. 



