166 ORIGINAL MKMBKKS. 



abounds, and lie was at much pains to examine many of tlie 

 numerous sacrificial and burial places in that island, and to 

 collect organic remains from them. While tlms employed 

 lie received a pressing invitation from Prof. Retzius to go with 

 him to the meeting of Scandinavian naturalists then abonc 

 to be held at Christiania, and accordingly repaired thitheiv 

 where he read three papers : — 1st, ^' On the Recrystallization 

 of Fallen Snow " ; 2nd, '' On the Swarm of Lemmings in 

 Lapland in 1853, the Birds that accompanied it, and their 

 jNIode of Breeding " ; and, .3rd, " On the Improvement of the 

 Breed of the Reindeer/^ The meeting over, he returned 

 to Copenhagen, and thence went to Stockholm, on his way to 

 Lapland. 



On his arrival at the Swedish capital, he received intelli- 

 gence of a very unexpected and almost unhoped-for discovery 

 made a few weeks before by persons in his employment — 

 a discovery by far the most interesting and important to 

 ornithologists that was destined to result from his labours. 

 He hurried, on to Muonioniska to obtain the details, Avhich 

 he found to be of a most satisfactory nature. The time may 

 probably come when oologists will have a difficulty in 

 comprehending with what delight the naturalists of this 

 generation hailed the tidings that the mystery with which 

 the nidification of the Wax wing had hitherto been enshrouded 

 Avas dispelled. At Wolley^s especial request the intelligence 

 was communicated to but a few of his most intimate friends 

 at home, one of whom (the late Mr. Yarrell) it was his Avish 

 should make public the news. Before, however, the letters 

 aunouncing the great event reached England that excellent 

 gentleman had been laid in his grave, and the discovery was 

 accordingly first announced in a short paper communicated 

 by AVolley himself to the Zoological Society of London and 

 read at the meeting held March 2Gtli, 1857. Soon after tljc 

 public had an opportunity of testing their appreciation of 

 this new acquisition to oology, and the result was that a 

 higher price was obtained for each of the three eggs of tli(> 

 WaxAving — offered for sale at Mr. Stevens's rooms — than had 

 ever been known before, except in the case of those of a 



