ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 65 



species, Phalarope, perhaps, or Golden Plover, though I hardly 

 think so. 



After this I leave the tent and try to take up a position from 

 which I may be able to see the actual transfer of prey from the 

 male to the female Merlin, or the depositing of it by the former, 

 but this I am unable to do. The small size of the birds, and 

 the huge scale of the land contours they fly over, with the 

 frequent rises and depressions, makes it difficult to follow them 

 for long, or to pick them up again, when lost. Later in the after- 

 noon, the female bird flies from the home-rock to the opposite 

 side of the next ravine, and, coming down on a rough, stony 

 surface, seizes something which is evidently a bird, for, as she 

 bends her head and raises it again repeatedly, I see feathers 

 flying about, showing that she is plucking the corpse. As she 

 has flown straight to the spot and there has been the cry of the 

 male just before, I make no doubt that this bird has been 

 brought in for her by the latter, who may be quite near at the 

 time. I see him shortly afterwards, in the neighbourhood, and, 

 a minute or two later, the female flies to the nest again, but not 

 carrying anything. She has either stored the prey — in which 

 term simply leaving it where it was must be included — or made 

 a meal off it herself. Upon my return to the tent, I re-pitch it 

 in a different position, taking in a wider view of the surrounding 

 country. It is 7 p.m., or thereabouts, by the time I get inside, 

 and at 7.6 the female bird, having left the nest in response to the 

 usual cry, flies to it again, with something that suggests the 

 plucked sternum of a small bird, and I can see her plainly 

 eviscerating it for the chicks. Having fed them, she covers them 

 as usual. At 7.14 the male flies up, twittering, and settles on 

 the great hillside. A moment afterwards, the female flies from 

 the nest, and straight to him, and then at him, making a little 

 grab, but flying on, without alighting, and disappearing over the 

 edge of the next gorge. Shortly she reappears, though I cannot 

 see from where, and comes flying to the ledge, on which she 

 alights, holding in her claws what looks like a ball of entrails, 

 and with this she again feeds the " little eyases." This takes 

 her till 7.22, when she covers them. At or about 7.30 there is 

 the cry of the male Merlin. The female remaining on the nest, 

 he twitters again, and continues to do so at short intervals, 



