I 57 ) 



A DIARY OF ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION MADE 

 IN ICELAND DURING JUNE AND JULY, 1912. 



By Edmund Selous. 



On May 29th, 1912, 1 sailed — or rather steamed — for Iceland, 

 and was met on board, on June 2nd, by Mr. Sigurdsson, with 

 whom I had arranged to stay. We reached the farm, travelling 

 in the usual way — on ponies, that is — on the 4th, and set out 

 next morning for some cliffs, overlooking a large lake, at no 

 great distance, amidst the ledges of which a pair of Sea-Eagles 

 (Halia'etus albicilla) had for years laid their eggs, which had for 

 the same time been sold to various daring men whose enthusiastic 

 love of nature had led them to these undisturbed, wild spots, with 

 no other purpose than that of making such romantic purchases 

 from the very hands of the native inhabitants in them, or of 

 the far -travelled dealer. Our course lay along the bank of a 

 river which, issuing from the great lake (now close at hand) 

 rushes along in an impetuous, boiling torrent, amidst rocks and 

 great cliff-like fragments fallen from its banks, which here form 

 veritable precipices. Dismounting a little above the outlet, 

 where the lake forms a small bay, we crossed it in a very little 

 boat, with a very big leak in it, through which the water poured 

 almost as fast as I could bail it out, and which the waves seemed 

 every moment on the point of swamping altogether. Owing to 

 its being so rough, we had to land immediately opposite to the 

 point from which we started, instead of rowing to the vicinity of 

 the eyrie, which necessitated carrying everything up to the top 

 of the cliffs, and then, proceeding along them, to descend at a 

 point where they again became scaleable, a little beyond the 

 place. First, however, we visited it expeditus. Before we 

 had gone very far, one of the Eagles went up from some- 

 where along the line of cliffs, and floated majestically, high 

 above us, uttering, at intervals, a monosyllabic note, quickly 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XVII., February, 1913. F 



