ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 299 



better pleased to find him there. That the two are excited by 

 each other's presence, and lift up their voices more joyously on 

 that account, cannot be doubted, and I feel sure, myself, that the 

 sally and putting to flight of the intruder has also its full effect, 

 though it is quite possible that every home-coming may be thus 

 signalised — that it is a part of the general beauty of swan life. 

 What, indeed, can be the fundamental cause of such melodising, 

 with the eloquent actions which accompany it, other than 

 affectionate excitement ? It is on the permanent factor of the 

 domestic affections that the special stimulus acts. 



The sun appeared above the mountains at 2.30 a.m. (it was, 

 of course, light enough before), but took over a quarter of an 

 hour to top them. I waited for it, and then went back to bed, 

 Sigurdsson waking me, with a bottle of hot tea, wrapped in a 

 lamb-skin, at a little after 8. Going out, then, with the glasses, 

 I saw the two Swans, with their cygnets, on the island. The 

 parents were cropping the grass, but whether they laid any of it 

 down for the cygnets was difficult to make out, and before 

 I could feel certain about it, all of them had taken the water, 

 again. They swam out into the lake, or lake-like stream, and 

 when they had reached the middle of it, and were all in a group, 

 the female, first, rose, a little, in the water, and expanded the 

 wings, with their tips still touching it. Then, face to face, and 

 close together, the two birds threw up their heads, waved their 

 wings, and rejoiced most musically — the scene that I have now 

 many times recorded, but no stranger Swan had inaugurated it, 

 or was to be seen on the water. Had she approached, as before, 

 she would certainly have been chased away, in the usual manner, 

 and had she even been within the range of binocular vision, my 

 glasses must have detected her. Here, then, were spontaneous 

 glad liftings up of the spirit, without any extraneous provocatives. 

 There can hardly, I think, be a doubt as to the nature of the 

 emotions manifested. The cry, the attitude, all the various 

 movements and actions of the two birds, with their mutual 

 excitement, and especially their close approach to and turning 

 towards each other — everything shows pleasurable emotion, and, 

 indeed, there is not much else that such a scene can proceed 

 from, for that anger or alarm have nothing to do with it is fairly 

 obvious. How happy, then, are these birds, how innocent is 



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