As the available information is scattered, largely in driblets, amongst Icelandic, Danish, German, Latin, and English books and periodicals, it has occurred to me that it may be a convenience to English-speaking ornithologists to have this information revised and condensed in a handy form. And as, too, many of my fellow-countrymen visit Iceland to fish, geologise, botanise, study their health, or do nothing in particular-according to their various ways of taking life — and a good many of them, from my experience of them on board ship, seem inclined to take more or less interest in the birds they meet with there, it is possible that a handy manual on the subject may, in their case also, supply what is at present a want.