THE ZOOLOGIST
No. 725.—November, 1901.
BRIEF NOTES ON AN EXPEDITION TO THE
NORTH OF ICELAND IN 1899.
By F. Coburn.
I spent the summer of 1899, alone, exploring the North of Iceland for ornithological purposes. My primary object in visiting that island was to study the breeding haunts and habits of some British birds who do not, or rarely do, breed in this country; and to procure specimens, especially the downy young, to assist in completing, as far as I can during my lifetime, the series of educational pictures depicting the life-histories of British birds, upon which I have been already engaged about ten years.
I was totally ignorant of the island and the people, and could obtain no reliable or satisfactory information in this country until the very eve of my departure; the only books I had access to being Paijkull's 'Summer in Iceland,' and Shepherd's 'North-West Peninsula of Iceland.'
From the scant information I could glean, I quite expected that I should have to lead a wild life, and therefore fitted up my expedition with tents and all necessaries, provisioning myself for two months, which I considered, with the assistance I might obtain from the inhabitants and my guns, should make me safe for four months, if necessary. I had not, however, been on the island many days before I found that most of these preparations had been so much worry, hard work, and money practically
