Mr. J. Wolley on the Breeding of the Smew. 71 



the same hole with eggs of that bird. As a consequence of this 

 popular belief, I often had dwarf eggs of Sotka brought to me 

 for Ungilo's. From one trustworthy man^ Piko Haki, I heard 

 that some ten years before he had found a nest and taken the 

 eggs on sale for eating to a resident trader, who had asked him 

 where he had got Hens^ eggs. Now Hens^ eggs are unknown in 

 the interior of the country, where I was ; but at Uleaborg, 

 where the trader had been familiar with them, they are about 

 the size of our Bantam's eggs. This gave me the best indi- 

 cation I had yet met with of the probable appearance of the 

 egg, and 1 told my servant-lad Ludwig in confidence that, 

 when we at length should get Ungilo's eggs, they would be 

 very like Wigeon's, though probably more white. Of course this 

 was not to be talked of, as it might lead to attempts at impo- 

 sition. It is possible that the small comparative size of the 

 Ungilo's eggs, and the habit of the bird turning out the Golden 

 Eye, had made it little liked by the people, and that they used 

 to catch it on its eggs and kill it, as they do Hawk-Owls and 

 Tengmalm's Owls. 



However that may be, year after year passed by, and I never 

 once, out of the tens of thousands of duck-like birds that came 

 under my notice, caught sight of a Smew. In time I came to 

 hear from people who came from the Sodankyla district, a good 

 way to the east of Muonioniska, that Uinilo, as it was there 

 called, bi'ed at more than one lake in that neighbourhood. In 

 1856 I sent a very clever Lap, Martin Pekka, to this quarter 

 for the egg-season, but he could not meet with Uinilo. 



In 1857 the clergyman of Muonioniska, Priest Liljeblad, had 

 been transferred to Sodankyla ; and in the spring of this year, 

 an intelligent young man, Carl Leppajervi, went from Muonio- 

 niska to be assistant- schoolmaster with his former teacher. I 

 gave Carl strict charge to make every inquiry for Uinilo in that 

 part of the world and of travellers from Kemi Trask. One day 

 (the 30th July 1857), as I passed by the homestead of Regina's 

 Calle, the famous steerer of the Muonio Falls, there was given to 

 me a wooden box, such as is used in the country for carrying 

 butter on a journey, addressed " To the English gentleman Joli 

 Woleg in Muoniovaara." The box was not tied nor secured in 



