3210 Tue ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1872. 
The Birds of the Feroe Islands. By Capt. HENRY W. FEILDEN. 
Having passed six weeks in the Feroe Islands during the 
months of May and June, 1872, and having paid my best atten- 
tion to their Avifauna, I am in hopes that an account of their 
Ornithology brought down to the present date may not be un- 
acceptable to your readers. In compiling the following list, I 
have consulted the excellent paper on the “ Birds of the Faroe 
Islands,” by the late John Wolley (Cont. Orn. 1850, pp. 106—117), 
the valuable work of Herr Sysselmand H. C. Miiller, “ Feroernes 
Fuglefauna,” (vide Meddel. Nat. For. 2 ser. vol. iv. pp. 1—78). 
The earlier writers, Olaf Worm (1655), Debes (1673), Oliger 
Jacobeus (1696), Mohr (1786), Landt (1800), and Graba (1828), 
have been referred to; and from Herr Miiller I have received 
extracts of many interesting notes taken from the manuscript 
volumes of Svabo, now placed in the archives of the Royal 
Library at Copenhagen: this talented Faroese made an official 
tour through these islands during 1781 and 1782, but his worth 
does not seem to have been appreciated by the then Danish 
Government, for he died in obscurity in Feroe about 1828. In 
addition, I have most kindly received from Herr Miiller a copy 
of all his manuscript notes, referring to the Ornithology of Feroe, 
since the publication of his work in 1862. And finally, my own 
notes made during my late visit. 
No more concise or exact description of the Feroe Islands can 
be given than what I now extract from the writings of John 
Wolley :— 
“ Situate in an open sea, and also an intermediate station on the 
highway to Iceland, they offer a resting-place to wanderers over 
the ocean. Most of the islands of which the group is composed 
are mountains, whose foundations are far below the surface of the 
water, and their sides are divided into horizontal terraces from the 
bedding of the trap rock. Inu many places, especially to the north 
and west, there are precipices of such stupendous height as to 
have their summits generally in the clouds, and they are often 
perpendicular from top to bottom. * * * Fierce blasts of 
wind frequently rush down from the mountains, mist and rain are 
almost incessant, and the air is so damp that the sods of grass 
with which the roofs of the wooden houses of men are covered 
