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A DIARY OF ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION MADE 

 IN ICELAND DURING JUNE AND JULY, 1912. 



By Edmund Selous. 



(Continued from p. 104.) 



Having had some supper and got into my fisherman's thick 

 oilskins — for it is now cold enough — I get to my place, again, a 

 few minutes before 8, and find the male Swan at the bank, just 

 opposite the nest. In a moment or two he gets out, and, walking 

 up to it, stands there, as though waiting for something. This is 

 not long in happening, for the female, shortly afterwards, rises, 

 and the little grey cygnets are revealed, pressed together at the 

 top of the mound. The first thing the female Swan does, after 

 her long sitting, is to give her wings two or three great flaps. 

 Then she comes off the nest, and, pecking up a few bunches of 

 grass near it, places them at its base, swinging round her head 

 behind her, each time, in doing so. She then browses a few 

 hasty mouthfuls, and, going to the water, drinks plentifully of it, 

 from the bank, bending down her long neck and then throwing 

 it up into the air, some half-dozen times. Then she enters the 

 water and preens herself in it a little, but without going out 

 from the bank. All the while I am expecting her to swim out, 

 and feed, as the male has been doing, but, as will be seen, she 

 acts very differently. The male, meanwhile, has stood most of 

 this time by the nest and cygnets, but has not taken the place of 

 the female, and is now out of sight, on the further side of the 

 neet. In a very few minutes the female comes out of the water 

 again, and, returning to the nest, she once more broods the 

 cygnets, all in a very leisurely manner. Thus she has volun- 

 tarily fasted for some six or seven hours, and then only eaten a 

 few mouthfuls, nor have the cygnets, all this while, had any- 

 thing. Now the male comes into sight again, walks past the 

 nest, and, just as the female has done, pecks up some tufts of 



