ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 147 



of me and the tent, in consequence of which the tenant of the 

 healthy one perished, or both of them, instead of one only, as is 

 commonly the case, were this year infertile. I have given my 

 reasons for not regarding the second of these alternatives as 

 excluded, to which I may here add the fact that, in the case of a 

 pair of Nightjars which I watched, without (at that time) the 

 birds having any suspicion of my presence, the eggs were once 

 left uncovered for seven hours, yet, in due course, hatched out. 

 What I most rely on, however, is the statement which was 

 volunteered by the proprietor of the eyrie — who should be 

 the most likely to know — that the eggs of this pair of Eagles 

 were seldom good for two years in succession, for, as will shortly 

 appear, they were good the following year — that is to say one of 

 them was, if we assume that two were laid. The fact spoken to 

 may seem a strange one, but it was spoken to, and the evidence 

 has to be taken. There is also Sigurdsson's assertion that, in 

 Iceland, Eagles are not shy, but always build in the neighbourhood 

 of human habitations, and of this both the pair in question and 

 another, afterwards to be mentioned, are examples. It makes no 

 difference in the inferences that may legitimately be drawn from 

 this, whether it is the habitations that have come to the Eagles or 

 the Eagles to the habitations. The latter, for reasons sufficiently 

 obvious, is, in fact, perfectly possible, but assuming the former 

 to represent the facts, yet why have the birds, if shy, not 

 left, on that account ? That is not an easy question to answer ; 

 but, on the other hand, there are reasons why, in a country like 

 Iceland, one might expect, even now, to find birds of all sorts 

 less shy than in Europe generally. Sought or unsought, how- 

 ever, the proximity of human beings must react upon the 

 disposition and habits of any animal, and the point here is 

 what these Eagles now are, not how they became what they 

 are. I myself was witness of the fact that the putting up of 

 the tent which, with the general installing, took over an hour 

 and involved the presence of four persons, as well as a boat, 

 did not drive the sitting Eagle away, or even appear to 

 make her anxious, and it is difficult to understand why, this 

 being so, the tent itself, with moss stuck over it, and its one 

 occupant — not more obtrusive, I think, when outside it, than the 

 shepherding lads I have spoken of — should have had a more 



