ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 63 



having been upon the brooding just before. A few moments 

 previously I had heard the squeaky little cry of the male, but 

 subdued and low-sounding — the birds latterly, I think, have 

 become more silent. 



8.38. Female back and feeds chicks, which takes only four 

 minutes. It would seem, therefore, as if the prey had been 

 " broken up " on the ground, and she had only brought in a 

 piece of it. This must, I think, have been the case, as I could 

 not even catch sight of what she had. At 9.25 she leaves the 

 nest and walks almost to the end of the ledge. It ends in a little 

 immature hill ; this she partly ascends, and begins to pick at the 

 green growing grass upon it. She does this in a determined 

 way, but I cannot quite make out that she does more than peck 

 and pull at it — whether she actually plucks it, I mean. She 

 then comes back, and when near to the nest does the same with 

 the browner and less fresh-looking grass there. At 10.12 she 

 goes off the nest, with a flutter, and is back, with prey, before 

 10.13. The chicks are then fed, which takes till 10.19 only. The 

 male, I think, must have come close up, this time, but I heard no 

 twitter — all was in silence. Going higher up the slope, so as to look 

 down into the nest, it does not appear that the bird really covers 

 her chicks. They lie now, at any rate, for the most part, un- 

 covered just in front of her, and she sits with her wings down on 

 either side, spread so as to touch the ground— the nest, by the 

 way, is hardly more than the bare ground — as though to shield 

 them. But my approach may have something to do with this, 

 for I cannot look down into the nest without the bird upon it 

 seeing me, and she may perhaps have detected or suspected me 

 a moment or two before I peeped over the edge of the parapet. 



At 11.2 or 3 a.m. the bird goes off, and, as she flies, I both 

 see and hear the male, who takes his stand a good way off on 

 the slope of the hill. The female comes flying towards him, 

 and, when just over his head, makes, as she skims along, a little 

 dip down, which may or may not have been sufficient to enable 

 her to take something from him, but certainly not from the 

 ground. She passes on, over the top of a rise, some way off, and, 

 in a moment or two — about 11.15 — is back at the nest, bringing 

 nothing with her. There has, I think, been no further meeting 

 between her and the male. My reading is that the dip down of 



