152 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Lock will do well to reconsider his verdict with a view to his 
next edition. See ‘ Ibis,’ 1885, p. 876; 1886, p. 49. 
The Mealy Redpoll we found abundant in the birch woods, 
and took two nests, with six and four eggs, and a boy brought in 
another. The nests were made of birch twigs, lined with grass, 
both interlaced with sheep’s wool; a thick inner lining of white 
Ptarmigan feathers completed the structure. One nest was in the 
fork of a birch tree, about four feet from the ground; the other 
almost upon the ground, on a bank side. See ‘Ibis,’ 1886, 
pp. 46-7. 
Of the Snow Bunting we obtained several nests. They are 
rather stupid birds, and are either excessively shy or absurdly 
tame. Their nests, which are placed in a narrow crevice ina 
rock, in some wild gill near the snow line, are large, loose, and 
untidy, like those of the Yellowhammer, and are made of moss 
and roots, lined thickly with grass, and again with Ptarmigan 
feathers. One nest we saw contained a large lump of cow’s hair 
carelessly putin. The complement would seem to be six eggs, 
but a nest we took had only four, which were much incubated. 
Ravens were not uncommon. The number of eggs of other 
birds which these and Richardson’s Skuas dispose of, must be a 
very large proportion of those laid. There is no doubt that they 
especially keep in check the numbers of the Golden Plover and 
Whimbrel by devouring, throughout Iceland, thousands of the 
eggs of each. Doubtless, also, they do nearly as much towards 
thinning the Ptarmigan as man with his guns and snares. We 
were too late for Ravens’ eggs, but from a nest in a lonely gorge 
we took young birds, almost fledged, which had been fed liberally 
on birds’ eggs and crow-berries. (Has this circumstance any 
connection with the latter name?) We also heard young birds 
calling from their nests in the cliffs elsewhere. 
~The Northern Wren (7. borealis) was not unlikely to occur in 
this neighbourhood. We hunted and listened for it most care- 
fully, but neither saw or heard it, nor found a nest, new or old; 
nor did our collectors bring any in, or lead us to suppose that they 
were likely to do so. In fact, we never met with anyone in 
northern Iceland who seemed to know more of it than the name. 
Four eggs of the Turnstone were brought in, which is all we saw 
of this bird in Iceland. 
We shot three pairs of Richardson’s Skua, of which only two 
