TURDUS ILIACUS. 291 



growing quite eloquent in his account of tliis bird in Iceland, whither 

 he went Avith Mr. Milner. 



§ 1307. 0/?^.— Umea, Sweden, 23 May, 1853. 



A mile or two north of the town of Umea 1 shot a Redwing with 

 this egg, apparently ready for exclusion. I have for a long time 

 heard the song of the Redwing — perhaps since leaving Gefie. It is 

 not for a moment to he compared for excellence Avith that of the 

 Common Thrush. [C/. Zoologist, pp. 4204, 4205.] 



§ 1308. One, ^ 



§ 1309. Four. > Miioniovaara, 13 June, 1853. "J. W.' 



§ 1310. Four. 



These are out of three nests which I visited, they having been 

 previously found by the boy, Ludwig Matthias Knoblock \ The 

 first was in the hollow of an old Scotch- fir stump, of which only half 

 the shell remained, standing perhaps three feet above the ground. 

 Inside was a mound of earth and moss, grown up against the decayed 

 wood and bark, Rubus rhamcemorus , Vaccinium vitis-idcea, and other 

 plants — the first in flower — at the bottom grass and lichens with 

 moss. At the top of the little mound was the nest, built against the 

 decayed wood. It was principally made of fine grass with no mud, 

 and had a deep hollow. In it were two eggs and three young birds, 

 one of which, as Ludwig said, had been hatched within a few liours. 

 The old birds flew near, from bush to bush, with great activity, every 

 now and then flying towards us and suddenly wheeling ofi", snapping 

 their beaks. I saw them well with my glass. 



The second nest had five small eggs — not long laid, and probably, 

 as Ludwig said, belonged to a young bird. It was placed upon a large 

 bare stump and roots which formed part of a kind of fence in the 

 wood, and was completely exposed. One of the birds flew quickly 

 from the bush round us, at some distance, calling, as the others at the 

 first nest did, somewhat like a Blackbird. It generally settled out 



1 [The name is underlined in this passage of Mr. Wolle^^'s Eg-g-book, where it 

 occurs for the first time. I believe it was the intelligence the boy then exhibited 

 that caused him to be taken into the employment in which he afterwards distin- 

 guished himself so highly. — Ed,] 



