ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 173 



then flies to the other side of the gorge, where he stands 

 perched. At 2.37 the female flies in and feeds the chicks, 

 which takes her about four minutes. She then broods them, 

 but at 2.55, or thereabouts, leaves the nest again, returning in 

 two or three minutes, when she gives them a second meal which 

 takes nearly twice as long. This last exit of the female took 

 place when my eyes were closed for a moment or two, but when 

 I opened them the male is still perched where he was before ; it 

 looks as though the hen had only brought a portion of what 

 she received, and gone off for more. 



I forgot to note that, some little time before this, whilst she 

 was brooding the chicks, the female bird walked along the ledge, 

 as on a former occasion, but, this time, right to the end of it, 

 and began picking the green grass there with great spirit. It 

 looked as though she were eating it, and though this may seem 

 very unlikely, I certainly thought I saw her swallow a blade or 

 two. Whatever she really did, when she had done it she made 

 her funny little run back along the ledge to her chicks, and I then 

 left her and made an ascent of the mountain, the characteristic 

 features of which, with the lake in what is now probably part of 

 an extinct crater at its top, I have already described. I return 

 at 6.30, to find the female bird on the ledge, by the nest, and 

 she shortly broods the chicks. About 7 p.m. the male bird flies 

 up the gorge with his usual cry. The female flies out, but not 

 to him, and there is no meeting either in the air or when he, 

 shortly afterwards, perches on a favourite promontory. She 

 flies on and returns, unladen, at three or four minutes past 7. 

 At 8.13 she leaves the nest and flies briskly about, for a little, 

 before again taking her place at 8.20. She seems impatient for 

 the coming of the male, and when, a little past 8.30, he flies in, 

 with his twitter, she darts off, to join him and is back with 

 booty, and feeds the chicks at 8.35. 



June 25th. — Owing to my oversleeping myself — which was 

 owing to my lying recumbent rather than sleeping, for the 

 greater part of the night, on account of my feet keeping cold and 

 the ground hard, even through two Icelandic feather beds — I could 

 make no observations this morning, other than that the female 

 bird was on the nest, before Sigurdsson's arrival with the ponies 

 ended this monograph and ushered in the return journey. 



