ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 307 



went I followed, and in all these places were Mosquitos — as where 



were they not ?— yet still I could never actually see one pursued 



and caught ; but this was soon to be vouchsafed me. A tiny 



rill, which winds here amidst tiny hills, clothed with tiny birch 



trees and only at its mouth becomes stream-like, debouches, if so 



large a word may be used of it, into this part of the lake ; and 



along its windings fringed on each side with masses of grey 



stone-like slag that have become moss-covered and even support 



stunted tree-bushes, I followed one of these Phalaropes, and in 



the little fairy pool, in which the expansion of its waters begins, 



I saw this bird excitedly pursuing and deftly catching these 



pests, and that at so close a distance that the glasses were not 



at all needed, though they greatly added to the vindictive pleasure 



of the sight. The avenger — alas ! how imperfect a one — turned, 



zig-zagged, skurried, strained upwards, pressed, in a foot's 



length, to all points of the compass, and especially kept hugging 



every nook, angle, jetty, or little indentation of the shore, and 



almost at every little pretty, soft snap, might have said, like 



Cleopatra to her "betrayed" fishes, each representing an 



Antony — " Ah, ha, you're caught! " Then out of some similar 



configuration, swam the other riparian investigator — larger than 



the first, its partner evidently, which, if all tales be true, should 



make it the female — catching Mosquitos all as ardently. There 



was nothing but Mosquitos, and nothing more seemed wanted. 



The air was full of them, and never was hunt more successful. 



Never, too, surely, could a pair of little birds have been seen, 



prettier, at once, and occupied more meritoriously. The first 



perhaps, and the second just possibly, but surely not the two in 



conjunction. 



(To be continued.) 



