Whoopers, hoopers, or wild swans (Cycnus ferus, Icel. Álpt or Svanr in poetry, the Fær. Svener), are now, from the rarity of the skins, sold at fancy prices.
The Iceland golden-eye (Clangula islandica, Icel. Húsönd) fetches, according to quality, $0, 5m. to $1, 2m.
The gulls (L. glaucus, Icel. Hvít-máfur or Hvít-fugl) and the great black-backed L. marinus (Svartbakur) are cheap, and good specimens may be bought for $0, 2m.
The great northern diver (Colymbus arcticus seu glacialis, Icel. Himbrimi or Brúsi), if good, costs $1, 4m.; usually it is sold when the coat is changing from winter to summer wear, and is not worth buying.
The red-throated diver (Colymbus ruficollinus seu septentrionalis, Icel. Lómr or Therrikráka) is worth $1, 2m. when in good condition, with red around the throat and about the breast.
The other skins are the whimbrel or curlew-knot (Numenius phaeopus, Fær. Spogvi, Icel. Nefvoginn-Spói); the pretty red-headed pochard (Fuligula ferina), extending from the Himalayas to North America, from Italy to Greenland; the beautifully painted harlequin, or stone duck (Histrionicus torquatus seu Anas histrionica, Icel. Straum-önd or stream-duck); the white-breasted and crooked-bill’d goosander (Mergus castor, Icel. Stóratoppönd or Gulönd), so different of robe in male and female; the red-breasted mergander (Mergus serrator, Icel. Lilla Toppönd), whose brick-hued bill, ending in a white horny nail, has various serrations, according to sex; the shag, scarf, or cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo, Carbo cormoranus or Pelicanus carbo, Icel. Skarfur, Toppskarfur, and Dílaskarfur), never taught in Europe to fish; the gannet (Sula bassana or Pelicanus bassanus, Icel. Súla or Hafsúla); the various skuas or Arctic gulls (Stercorarius Icel. Kjói); the Iceland gull (L. leucopterus, Icel. Hvít-máfur), white, with ash-blue back; the guillemot (Uria troile, Icel. Svartlag, Langnefia, or Langvia), whose flesh is eaten, and whose feathers sell for twenty-eight skillings per lb.; the black guillemot (Uria grylle, Icel. Tejsti); the grey-lag goose (Anser ferus); the scaup-duck (Fuligula marila); the black scoter (Oedemia nigra); the long-tail duck (Harelda glacialis); the pin-tail duck (A. acuta); the red-necked phalarope (Icel. Óðin’s-hani, Phalaropus hyperboreus seu tringa borea); the gadwall (A. strepera); the wigeon (A. Penelope); the mallard (A. boschas); the teal (A. crecca).
SECTION IX.
CATALOGUE-RAISONNÉ OF MODERN TRAVELS IN ICELAND—PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVEL.
§ 1. Catalogue.
And first a few words concerning Icelandic literature.
Iceland has been loudly proclaimed to be the “home of the Eddas,”[270] which is emphatically not the case. The Elder or poetical Edda is distinctly Continental; it abounds in uninsular ideas and similes: the sun-stag, the high-antler’d deer, the wolf,[271] the strong-venom’d snake, the mew-field’s bison or path of ship over the sea, the lily and the pine forest, are poetical imagery, wholly unfamiliar to the untravelled Icelander.