THE BIRDS OF ICELAND: A CORRECTION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—For "four hundred kinds" of birds enumerated in my little book your reviewer (Spectatcrr,September7th) should have written one hundred and fifteen! The only species he mentions by name is the Northern wren, and wonders if I should have taken its eggs, or some of them, had I found them. I should. There are no examples of the bird or its eggs from Iceland in either of the national collections, and I am not aware if there are elsewhere in England. I only know with certainty of one skin that has ever come here (in 1837). and where it is now I cannot say. My collection will probably find its way eventually to a national or University museum, and I am quite clear that one example of the Northern wren (I am not including the smaller intermediate race from the Farces) ought to be preserved for posterity before its final extinction, which is not far off. This is quite a different thing from the large series of clutches of the eggs of rare species in private collections (many of which serve no scientific purposes whatever), which I reprobate.—I am, Sir, &c., Thornhaugh Rectory, Wansford. HENRY H. SLATER.
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