182 BRITISH BIRDS [vol. x. 



possible these eggs might have come into his possession 

 from Greenland, and made numerous enquiries as to 

 whether ships ever came into the port where we were 

 staying from that country. We were informed that they 

 were quite unknown, and there was no traffic between 

 that part of Iceland and Greenland. I had an idea that 

 possibly our merchant's reticence and suspicion might 

 be due to his not quite understanding the mixture 

 of languages in which we tried to address him, conse- 

 quently on our return to England I had a letter sent in 

 Danish asking if he would kindly give me any particulars 

 as to the folding of the nest and repeated my offer to 

 purchase the set should he be disposed to sell. The 

 following is a translation of the letter I received which 

 perhaps may be of sufficient interest to put on record : — 



" Honoured Sir, — In answer to yours of 15th I 

 would say that some years ago, about 1909, I was con- 

 vinced that the Goose species " Enneltuir " \leucopsis] 

 laid its eggs here, as one autumn I was able to shoot 

 here on the burn Blanda, a pair of young ones which 

 were hardly able to fly, and therefore could not have 

 come from so far away as Greenland. This was as well 

 as I could remember at the end of August, that is near 

 the time the Geese usually migrate. On enquiry I found 

 that the bird had laid its eggs by a small bum higher 



up in the valley north-east of , and as the mother 



was with the young ones I was convinced that the bird 

 was a straggler which had laid its eggs later than usual. 



" Later on I got eggs of other species of Geese — segetum 

 [cinereus] and albifrons — and through correspondence 

 with a now deceased ornithologist, Dr. Ottagson in 

 Sweden, who wanted me to make excursions in the 

 north-western part of Iceland to search after eggs of the 

 Helsingi Goose which he was convinced laid its eggs there, 

 I also became convinced the eggs were to be found. My 

 time was too valuable, and my position too dependent 

 for me to make, the long excursions necessary in this 

 matter, and although he offered to defray all expenses 



