504 ANATID^. 



remarlvable that any woodsman trying to pass off Wigeon's 

 eggs for Smew's should have been able to find 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 ; hut it became 

 very striking on exposing the egg to direct sunshine and 

 examining the penumbra, or space between full light and 

 full shadow, with a magnifying glass — the sharp ' mountain- 

 ous ' structure of the Wigeon's egg was strongly contrasted 

 with the lower and more rounded character of the elevations 

 in the Smew's. It is my intention to endeavour to illustrate 

 this with the help of photography. Further, I tried the 

 sense of touch : scratching the egg with the most sensitive 

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

 ness 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 

 with the supposed Smew's ; and one or two other people 

 were equally successful. 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 parallel to the character of the 

 Smew's. 



" In the mean time, on August 4th, I sent a letter to 

 Pastor Liljeblad, 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. 

 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 16tli of September, and also enclos- 

 ing a specimen of the down, which my agent had picked out 

 of the heap of touch-wood sent with the letters from Sodan- 

 kyla. 



" The priest told me in Swedish that he now sent me the 



