TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



115 



for other purposes,, so near as to be immediately below it (for it is 

 almost perpendicular, with fragments projecting in many parts) 

 they are obliged to be cautious not to speak loud or make 

 any noise ; for this always causes the fall of lumps of stone of 

 different sizes, which the simple people suppose are thrown at 

 them by evil spirits : it is certain, however, that this effect is produced 

 by the sudden motion of the air ; as the mountain produces so 

 strong an echo, that the fall of a small stone makes as loud a 

 report as the discharge of a cannon. When it happens that a man 

 or sheep falls from the mountain, it is asserted that the belly 

 bursts open and the intestines come out during the descent; but 

 what is still more surprising is, that when a horse falls, its iron 

 shoes come off before it reaches the ground, and the crooked 

 nails in them are found to be straight. The younsj birds also 

 fall from this mountain in considerable numbers, and the people 

 of the country come in boats at low water to collect them; but 

 as the tide is here very violent, they sometimes cannot reach the 

 spot till after intervals of several days, when on their arrival they 

 find the dead birds lying in heaps in a state of putrefaction. They 

 then carry off for eating those which have last fallen, and strip the 

 rest of their feathers. 



The other species of birds, of which our travellers noticed 

 great numbers in this part of the country, were Larus collo et 

 pectore a Ibis, supra bruno et albo variegatus ; Procellaria (a 

 kind of storm-bird, according to Linnaeus); Larus albus (maxi- 

 mus), dorso et alls sitperius nigris; Larus albus medius et vulga- 

 ris auctorum; Larus albus, apicibus pennarum aibis; Sterna 

 fusco-alba, rectricibus mediis longissimis nigris; Sterna 

 alba, capite supra nigro, fyc. Linn.; Tetrao (versicolor) 

 rectricibus albis intermediis nigris, or Lagopus auctorum; 

 Tardus minor ; Haematopus Linncei; and Pica marina 

 Bartholin!, Among the birds of passage they particularly 

 mention the following, with which the Icelanders were well 

 acquainted: Numenius (major) rostro arcuato, maculis fuscis 

 ihomboidalibus, fyc. ; Triuga cinereo-fusca, macula in dorso 

 violacea; Charadrius nigro et luteo variegatus, pectore nigro ; 

 Charadrius nigro lutescente variegatus pectore macula nigra, 

 fyc.'; Charadrius (minimus) cinereo et fusco variegatus, fyc. ; 

 Tetrao (versicolor) rectricibus albis, intermediis ?iigris; La- 

 gapus auctorum; Tardus, alis subtus ferrugineis, linea supra 

 oculos albicante; Tringilla remigibus albis, primaribus extor- 

 sum nigris, rectricibus nigris, fyc; Motacilla pectore nigro; 

 Motacilla dorso cinereo-ccerulescente, fronte alba, fyc. ; Mo- 

 tacilla fusca, cauda surgente ; Hirundo nigra, gala albicante; 

 and Passer colore bruneo, fronte fcrrugmca, 



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