Mr. J. Wolley on the Breeding of the Smew. 73 



for Smew^s should have been able to tind so abnormal a nest. 

 But it was not very long before I satisfied myself that there 

 was a decided difference of texture. This could be perceived on 

 an ordinary examination ; but it became very striking on ex- 

 posing the egg to direct sunshine and examining the penumbra^ 

 or space between full light and full shadow, with a magnifying 

 glass — the sharp " mountainous " structure of the Wigeon's egg 

 was strongly contrasted with the lower and more rounded cha- 

 racter of the elevations in the Smew's. It is my intention to en- 

 deavour to illustrate this with the help of photography. Fur- 

 ther, I tried the sense of touch : scratching the egg with the most 

 sensitive of my finger-nails I could at once perceive the greater 

 roughness of the Wigeon's. Ludwig, though his hand was by 

 no means of the finest, did not make a single mistake in some 

 ten trials with his eyes shut of various Wigeon's eggs and the 

 supposed Smew's, and one or two other people were equally suc- 

 cessful. I now felt no doubt that I had true eggs of the Smew. 

 The ivory-like texture of the Goosander's egg was a pretty par- 

 allel to the character of the Smew's. 



In the meantime, on August 4th, I sent a letter to Pastor 

 Liljeblad, accompanied by a box with four beautiful eggs of the 

 Siberian Jay, packed as eggs should be packed, and enclosing 

 money, amongst other uses to pay for a thoroughly trustworthy 

 man to travel to Made-koski-kyla, to inquire into the particulars 

 of the capture of the Smew and its eggs, to himself visit the 

 birch trunk, and to bring away the down which would be lying 

 at the bottom of the hole. I also wrote to Carl Leppajervi. In 

 a month after I wrote, I hoped an answer might arrive; but I 

 was disappointed, and I was obliged to leave Muoniovaara for 

 England on the 11th of September. I had not been very long 

 in England when I received a letter enclosing communications 

 from Pastor Liljeblad and from Carl Leppajervi, which had 

 arrived at Muoniovaara on the 16th of September, and also 

 enclosing a specimen of the down, which my agent had picked 

 out of the heap of touch-wood sent with the letters from So- 

 il an kyl a. 



The priest told me in Swedish that he had asked me for the 

 eggs of the Siberian Jay, only because he had for many years pro- 



