FIELD NOTES FROM NORTHERN ICELAND. 151 
cartridge into his gun, and followed the bird, and in a minute 
returned carrying a female Purple Sandpiper. The nest (which 
had a pony’s footprint within two inches of it—a near shave !) 
was placed in a hollow of a tuft of Dryas octopetala, and was 
built—very substantially for a Wader’s nest—of Dryas and Salix 
lanata leaves, grass, two white Ptarmigan feathers, and some 
down. 
We continued to descend, enjoying the magnificent view, and 
crossed the rapid river at the bottom in a boat. The ponies, as 
usual, had to swim; a drove of them crossing a river is an 
extremely pretty sight. A short canter after this brought us at 
4 a.m. to a Lutheran manse, at which we proposed to stop 
for a few days. Without any ceremony we promptly went 
to bed in the guest-room, S. on the sofa and C. in the recess 
bed. 
We rose a little before 10, and after breakfast went to the 
neighbouring birch woods to collect. Of our doings at this place 
we need give only a short account. 
Redwings were pretty plentiful in the birch woods. Numbers 
of fledged young were on the wing. C. found a nest on the 
ground among the birches with four perfectly fresh eggs. Head- 
less Redwings and Golden Plovers, here and there, furnished 
evidence of the presence of birds of prey; the former killed, 
probably, by Merlins, the latter by Falcons. 
We found the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris) fairly 
abundant here, and obtained both birds and eggs. It frequents 
the birch scrub, and is a true Ptarmigan, with a voice like a frog. 
It is excellent eating, and we made savoury stews of the bodies of 
those we skinned. Mr. Lock, in his ‘ Guide to Iceland,’ con- 
siders the Icelandic Ptarmigan to be usually a hybrid between 
the Willow Grouse (ZL. albus) of N. Europe and N, America, 
and the Common Ptarmigan (L. mutus), and believes that pure 
birds of both species may be found also. With this opinion 
no one who has had the opportunity of examining critically a 
number of specimens will agree; the explanation of it may be 
found in the difference betweeen the redder summer and the 
greyer autumn plumage of L. rupestris. No modern ornitho- 
logical writer, since the species were satisfactorily differentiated, 
has said anything in agreement with Mr. Lock’s view, nor are any 
specimens known to exist in collections which bear it out. Mr. 
