FIELD NOTES FROM NORTHERN ICELAND. 155 
of Teal, Wigeon, Longtailed Duck, Merganser, Great Northern 
Diver, Snipe, and Merlin. Four young Merlins in down were 
brought to us, and a couple of goose eggs, and we saw some 
Goosanders. §S. did some fishing for the pot, or rather pan. 
Trout up to 2+ lbs., redfleshed as Salmon, but much infested with 
entozoa; they took in preference a small crimson-bodied Grilse 
fly, with teal wing and golden pheasant tail. The Char, which 
rose pretty well to fly also, but did not run much over a pound in 
weight (they are not uncommonly up to 4lbs. in Iceland), preferred 
big black hackle of grilse size, gold-ribbed. 
Our guide rejoined us on July 9th, and we proceeded some 
twenty-five miles further, over two very boggy and snowy ranges 
of hills, on which we found Ptarmigan fairly abundant. C. shot 
a hen bird which had evidently lost its nest through the recent 
snow, as it had a sitting spot on its breast. The surviving male 
kept almost within arm’s length of him. That evening we found 
comfortable quarters at a farm by another lake-side, where we 
stayed several days. 
Here we confined ourselves to egging, and never practised it 
on so wholesale a plan before. The first day we went out we did 
not keep a regular account of what we saw, supposing that we 
could carry the day’s finds in our heads, as usual. So on our 
return to our quarters in the evening we estimated carefully the 
numbers of the different species of which we had found nests with 
eggs, viz.: Arctic Tern, 40; Sclavonian Grebe, 14; Merganser, 3 ; 
Barrow’s Goldeneye, 7 ; Common Scoter, 1; Scaup, 160; Long- 
tailed Duck, 30; Wigeon, 2; Red-necked Phalarope, 45; White 
Wagtail, 1. 
There certainly appeared to be a good many birds about. 
Anything like the number of Red-necked Phalaropes we never 
saw before. In one spot, where we lay down for awhile at the 
lake’s edge, in the heat of the day, they were running about all 
round us in the willow bushes and rushes, like mice, and often 
not more than a yard from us. And on the water they were 
perhaps more numerous still, and were dotted all over the 
lake in little parties, arranging their feathers, and playing little 
tricks on one another. We must have had a hundred individuals 
in sight at once. They certainly are amongst the most pretty 
and engaging of birds. One nest—probably a co-operative store 
—had seven eggs in it. 
