Birds. 8935 
Notes on the Ornithology of Iceland. 
By AtrreD Newron, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., &c.* 
[After giving a list of all the works and papers on the Ornithology of 
Iceland of which he is cognizant, Mr. Newton proceeds as follows :—] 
From a consideration of the above-mentioned works, or at least of 
such of them as I have examined, coupled with my own personal 
experience of the country, I am inclined to believe that Iceland offers 
a field of considerable promise to the ornithologist ; and though it is 
not to be at all expected that any previously undescribed species of 
birds will reveal themselves, yet many possessing great interest com- 
monly frequent both the coast and the interior. Besides which, it is 
not beyond the bounds of probability that one or two of those whose 
places of retreat during the nesting season, if not altogether unknown, 
are still shrouded in much mystery, may be found breeding on some 
lonely Icelandic “heithi.” Of these | may mention the knot and the 
sanderling, and perhaps even the gray plover (Syuatarola helvetica),— 
though this latter bird, of almost ubiquitous occurrence, does not seem 
hitherto to have been met with in the island,—as likely to reward the 
search of some future investigator. The character of the Avi-fauna of 
the country, as might have been expected from its geographical posi- 
tion, is essentially European ; just as that of Greenland has American 
tendencies. Indeed, dismissing from our consideration the species of 
purely Polar type, which are common to the whole arctic region, there 
are, as far as my knowledge extends, only four or five which make 
Iceland their home without inhabiting some other part of continental 
Europe. These are the Iceland falcon, the northern wren (which, how- 
ever, does occur as a resident in the Feroes), the Iceland ptarmigan, 
the Iceland golden-eye, and the harlequin duck. The first is by most 
ornithologists of the present day recognized as distinct from the true 
gyr-falcon, and, though the differences between them are but slight, 
I believe no one has ever observed the characteristics of the Scandi- 
navian form in an Icelandic specimen. .The second has been but lately 
separated from our own common wren, which is a bird as well known 
throughout the greater part of the Continent as in this country, but I 
believe the separation is deserved. The third, the ptarmigan, certainly 
differs in some respects very considerably from the bird which occurs 
pau Scotland and Norway, and much more nearly resembles the form 
* Extracted from‘ Iceland: its Scenes and Sagas.’ By Sabine Baring-Gould. 
