ORNITHOLOGY OF SECTION D, 1850. 
I saw Daniel Joénsen, captain of a yessel belonging to Governor 
Lobner, which went in 1813 to fetch provisions from Iceland to the 
half-starved Faroese, and brought back some fifty or sixty of the 
Gorrfugle amongst other birds. They got them on one of the 
small rocks which the natives were afraid to visit, near Iceland. 
With respect to this name, Geirfugla of Iceland, Garefowl of St. 
Kilda, and Gorrfuglur of Faroe, I could hear no more than a sup- 
position from Sysselmand Winther, that it was taken from the voice 
of the bird, for such a noise as that made by Larus marinus is 
called gorra. It perhaps has a common signification with Gyrfaleon. 
Wormius, in the sixteenth century, had one sent to him from the 
Faroe Islands, which he kept alive for several months. Hoier de- 
scribes the Goirfugle about the same time, and Ray or Willughby 
saw specimens in the Royal Society's Museum, and also in Trades- 
cants. There are four islands marked in Olsen’s large and beat- 
tiful map of Iceland, which are called after the Geirfugla; namely, 
Geirfugla Sker, and Geirfugla Drangr, off Cape Reikianes, the south- 
west point of Iceland, Geirfugla Sker, to the south of the West- 
manna Isles, and another Geirfugla Sker, to the east of Teeland. 
This last is also called Hvalsbak, and the form of a whale’s back 
would be a very convenient one for the Alcea impennis to climb up 
and breed upon. I give all these particulars, as the Alea impen 
is now looked upon by ornithologists with so much interest a8 
very rare a bird—so rare indeed, that it has even been suggest 
that it is extinct. This, however, is not likely to be the case, evel 
without considering the probability of its being found on the La- 
brador coast. A friend of mine, who visited Iceland three ye" 
ago, met with the same fear amongst the natives, about trying . 
reach these far seaward and whirlpool beset rocks, that the Faroesé 
found on their visit in 1813. But small numbers, both of the eggs 
and birds, have from time to time been sent from Iceland to cont 
nental Europe. f 
Of birds which are said formerly to have bred in Iceland, sa 
of the Eagle, the Wild Goose, and the Swan. ’ 
The Eagle, no doubt the Sea Eagle, A. albicilla, which 18 the 
only one found in Shetland and in Iceland, and which still occasion” 
ally is killed in Faroe in the winter. The point of rock ¢ 
Tindholm was pointed out to me where the Eagle had its nest, 
which it carried off the child, according to tradition, as relate 
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