70 Mr. J. WoUey on the Breeding of the Smew. 



dark. It was described as breeding in holes of trees, or in tyllas, 

 that is, nest-boxes. It was a smaller bird than the Sotka 

 (Golden Eye), but was able to turn that bird out of its hole, if 

 it wanted it for itself; though some accounts told the reverse 

 story. It had formerly been found not unfrequcntly on the 

 Muonio River, and especially on the lakes through which the 

 little Jeris-joki runs. On the former river, a little above the 

 inlet of the Palo-joki, there is even an islet called after it, Un- 

 gilon-saari, on which, though there are still tyllas, the bird has 

 not been known for a good many years. In the course of time 

 I learned that the bird had a beak like a Koskilo (Merganser), 

 and the colours of the male were described to me in a way that 

 left no doubt it was the Smew. Still it required some selection 

 of evidence to hold this opinion firmly ; for instance, a woman 

 talking to me imitated the cry of the bird, in doing which she used 

 the syllables '' u-u-ungel " with the music of the spring call of the 

 Long-tailed Duck, and by her subsequent description clearly 

 showed that that was the bird she meant, though it is usually 

 known by quite another name, identical with, and perhaps bor- 

 rowed from, the Swedish, Alle. This suggested to me that the 

 name Ungilo may have been originally applied to the Long-tailed 

 Duck, inasmuch as we find, in Stromas " Description of Sand- 

 mor,^^ that the Long-tailed Duck is called Angle-mager (Hook- 

 maker) on parts of the Norwegian coast, doubtless from its cry, 

 connected with the time of its appearance when the sea-fishing 

 begins*. 



Nothing is more common than one and the same name being- 

 applied to different birds in different districts. Even this very 

 name Ungilo is used for the Goosander in certain places on the 

 Upper Tornea River. 



Concerning the egg of Ungilo I made every inquiry. All the 

 people who remembered it on the Muonio agreed that it was 

 much less than the Golden Eye^s, and was liable to be found in 



* The Finnish names of things are often nearly related, as the language 

 generally is, to the Lappish. For northern productions it is hkely that 

 the Finns, the later comers, would often borrow from the Lapps. The 

 Lapps call the Long-tailed Duck " Hanghi," a name probably formed 

 fron; the ear. 



