ORNITHOLOGY. 
273 
Many species of Molluscce frequent the shores, 
upon which Medusa cruciata is often thrown in 
great quantity, and of a size far exceeding what I 
ever met with in Britain, not measuring less than 
a foot in diameter. Shell-fish are far from abun¬ 
dant in the parts I visited, excepting the Mytilus 
modiolus , which is much eaten. Of the more 
delicate shells I was enabled to gather a very small 
number. 
- The water-birds of Iceland are numerous, most 
of those which migrate in the winter to our more 
southern latitudes coming here in the summer to 
breed, and no doubt many new species may be 
met with; but other occupations, and the great 
difficulty of procuring specimens in this country, 
did not permit me to bestow upon this depart¬ 
ment the attention I could have wished. I was 
fortunate enough to procure one or two apparently 
new species of Anas: and a very small kind of 
Phalaropus , with which I was unacquainted, hav¬ 
ing a body scarcely larger than a lark, was now" 
and then seen near Reikevig: it was probably the 
P. glacialis of Doctor Latham. 
I need not here repeat what has already been 
said in other parts of my journal respecting the 
few birds I met with in my excursions, nor the 
particulars I collected about the Eider-duck, whose 
T 
