158 BIRDS OF NOEFOLK. 



these long'-soug-lit treasures, will find an echo in tlie heart 

 of every ardent naturalist. Some twenty-nine eggs were 

 taken in the first season ; but it was not till the follow- 

 ing summer (1857) that Mr. WoUey succeeded in finding 

 a nest himself '' close to the house at Sardio," on the 

 16th of June, but which had been " deserted a. day or 

 two before, and from which something had thrown the 

 eggs, one after another, upon the ground as they were 

 laid ; of course broken to bits." The waxwings being 

 much more scarce in Lapland during that year, only 

 eight more eggs were brought in by the natives ; but in 

 the summer of 1858, when Mr. Wolley was himself 

 absent in Iceland, these birds, considered '^the fore- 

 runners of famine" in those districts, appear to have 

 been as plentiful in their newly discovered breeding sites 

 as occasionally in winter on our own coasts. Mr. Newton 

 remarks — ^'Not far from one hundred and fifty nests 

 were found by persons in his (Mr. Wolley's) employment 

 in Lapland, and some of them close to Muoniovara. It 

 seems, as nearly as I have been able to ascertain, 

 that no less than six hundred and sixty-six eggs were 

 collected, and more than twenty others were obtained 

 by Herr Keitel, of Berhn, who happened, without, 

 I believe, any expectation of the luck that was in store 

 for him, to be that year on the Muonio river." A 

 perfectly independent discovery of a waxwing's nest 

 was also made in this year by Mr. H. E. Dresser, on 

 the island of Sandon, off the harbour of Uleaborg, 

 where he succeeded in capturing two out of five young 

 ones, and securing also the old birds and one egg. In 

 this nest were the remains of some dried cranberries. 

 In 1859 the birds were again scarce, and not more than 

 forty-six eggs were obtained by Mr. Wolley's collectors ; 

 and in 1860 about fifty-two were procured through the 

 same agents. Mr. Newton describes the various nests 

 ''as built mostly in Spruce and Scotch fir trees {Pinus 



