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SUMMARY
Rare and vagrant birds in Iceland:
Cranes, Rails and Waterhens*
by
Erling Ólafsson
Icelandic Mnseum of Natural History
P. O. Box 5320, 125 Reykjavík
This paper deals with seven species of
vagrant birds in Iceland, all belonging to
the order Gruiformes. Only one species of
* Rare and vagrant birds in Iceland. Report
3: Icelandic Museum of Natural History.
the order is indigenous in the country, viz.
the Water Rail Rallus aquaticus.
For each species general information is
given, followed by a list of records in Ice-
land to December 1980 and discussion and
evaluation of the data. The records front
1981 — 1983 have been published in annual
rare bird reports (see Gunnlaugur Péturs-
son & Kristinn H. Skarphéðinsson 1983,
Gunnlaugur Pétursson & Erling Ólafsson
1984, 1985).
The following data are listed: Locality
(place, district and county), date or time
interval, number of birds, if more than
one, sex and age, if known, in parenth-
eses, and where the specimens are kept if
collected, name of observer(s) or only
reference, if the record is published pre-
viously. For some records further discus-
sion or explanations are included. The
majority of specimens are kept at the Ice-
landic Museum of Natural History. These
are designated by RM (= Reykjavik
Museum) and a catalogue number (e.g.
RM1953). Some old specimens are kept at
the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen
(ZM) and others in various museums, pri-
vate or school collections.
The species discussed are:
1. Porzana porzana. Very rare, only four
records (one from 1984) from SE, S,
SW and N Iceland, three from autumn
and one mid-summer record.
2. Crex crex. Twenty records, mostly from
spring and autumn (Fig. 2), one of them
from after 1980. Widely distributed but
most common in the southeast (Fig. 3).
There is one summer record from E
Iceland (no. 17), a territorial bird but
breeding not proven.
3. Gallinula chloropus. Fairly common
and regular with 40 records (plus four
skins with insufficient data). Five of
these are recent records, from 1981 —
1983. Fig. 4 indicates the times of the
records. Most of the birds were
observed in late autumn/early winter
(November—December), and a con-
siderable number during the spring
migration. Fig. 5 shows the distribution
155