422 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ON THE GOLDENEYES AND PTARMIGAN OF ICELAND. 

 By the Rev. H. H. Slater, B.A., F.Z.S. 



After having hazarded an opinion which is contrary to 

 general experience, it is always satisfactory when subsequent 

 evidence arises to support it. I recently recorded in ' The 

 Ibis' (1886, p. 49) my belief that the Common Goldeneye, 

 Clangula glaucion, Linn., occurs in Iceland. I had only the 

 evidence of my field-glass to go upon, and however well satisfied 

 with such an observer may be in his own mind, he prefers to 

 have conclusive evidence to lay before others. 



I am glad, therefore, to be able to mention that in a box of 

 skins lately received from a trustwortliy correspondent in the 

 north of Iceland, there were two examples of C. glaucion. One 

 of these is fully adult, with green-glossed head ; the other a 

 young bird in its first distinctively male dress, with sooty 

 unglossed head. They were killed in the winter of 1885 in the 

 Ej'ja- or Oefjord. 



Clangula islandica was first distinguished from C. glaucion by 

 Latham, and definitely named by Gmelin in 1788. Faber, the 

 Linnteus of Iceland, as Prof. Newton points out (Baring-Gould, 

 'Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas,' Appendix, p. 416), seems not to 

 have been aware that the two species had been determined to 

 be distinct, and his remarks on Clangula refer presumably to 

 C. islandica. 



There has been no record of the occurrence of G, glaucion 

 in Iceland since Faber's time. Herr Preyer, indeed (' Reise 

 nach Island,' &c., p. 411), goes so far as to remark that 

 ^^ Anas clangula, L., kommt in Island durchans nicht, vor und 

 wird durch Fuligula barrovi ersetzt." Nor does Prof. Newton 

 {I. c.) hint at its occurrence. Henceforward it will have a title 

 to be represented in the catalogue of the birds of Iceland. 

 I think it must be a scarce visitor, seldom seen far from the sea. 

 It was near the Skaga fjord that I saw it ; when at Myvator, 

 where ducks most do congregate, I made a careful sketch of the 

 heads of the two Goldeneyes, and submitted it to the various 

 egg-farmers there, who have indubitably a fair knowledge of the 

 birds they cultivate (there is no exaggeration in this word, though 

 the birds in question are strictly wild), and their testimony was 



