“ Sundhani .”



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raised and pulled forward the net by pulling the line. As a

matter of fact the birds usually evaded the net by a few inches

only (their movements are exceedingly quick) and settled down

again a few yards off. However, we captured five birds and got

four more caught by a local farmer and put them all in the wire

enclosure. When these last four birds arrived, a gentleman,

skilled in the English language, remarked to me, “ I should

think you have now got your fill of these philanthropes '' I

agreed, as my food supply was limited. Two of the birds died

almost at once (probably from injury or shock of capture), but

the others, after the first day, settled down and became quite

happy. One of the hens laid several eggs and all the birds

swam, basked in the sun, chatted incessantly and quarrelled,

just as they do when at liberty, except that, being kept in a

limited space, their disputes were naturally more frequent and

violent, though no harm resulted.


As to food. I took over with me to Iceland some dried

ants’ eggs, dried flies and live mealworms. The latter were a

total failure, as they would not keep long enough to be useful.

The birds at once readily took the ants’ eggs and dried flies, but

their main food supply was live maggots procured from several

3 lb. trout placed in the sun at a discreet distance from the farm.

I had the maggots well cleaned in sand from time to time in an

old biscuit tin and the birds ate them greedily; indeed there

seemed practically no limit to the numbers they would take.


At the end of a fortnight, after the first bird had been

caught, I had to move down to the coast, and the birds had to

endure an eight hours journey of violent shaking on the back of

an Icelandic pony. The track was very rough, but I gave the

birds a swim twice e?i roide, by having their travelling-box taken

off the pony and sunk a few inches in the edge of a stream. A

delayed steamer made the whole journey last eleven days, but

only one bird died, the others reaching Retford in good condition.

I may mention that I had the bottom of the birds’ wooden

travelling-box covered with a layer of the fibrous turf which the

Icelanders use for pack saddles. This, made in sections which

could be turned over, and each piece in duplicate, gave a good

soft clean floor, which the birds seemed to like very much. I



