89 
I observe that the eggs of both these Teal are s/zghtly 
smaller, and rounder than the eggs of the English birds: 
My eggs were taken by Mr. W. H. Palmer, at Helena, 
Montana, North America, on May 27, 1882. 
THE SMEW MERGANSER. 
(MerGus ALBELLUS.) 
Mr. Seebohm says the eggs of this bird are “indistinguish- 
able from those of the Wigeon except by weight,” being 
heavier. 
But he has given some hint of the texture as dis- 
covered by Wooley, of which the ample and truly 
interesting account is preserved for us by Mr. H. Saunders, 
It certainly is a beautiful feature in the history of eggs 
the variety of surface, the same fine grain of the egg 
of this bird is appreciable also in the eggs of two move of 
the four British species of Merganser; namely the 
Hooded Merganser; and Goosander Merganser; I have 
tested the eggs of all the other ducks, including the egg 
of the Red-breasted Merganser, and although, to the naked 
eye, the polish on many, as the Scoter’s for instance, 
seems as fine: yet when you hold the egg of those three Mer- 
gansers in one hand; and of any othey duck in the other ; uf a 
person apply the nail test, you may perceive the diffevenee im 
vibration up the forearm to the elbow. 
One of my eggs was taken by Henke, near Astrachan, 
Wolga, delta; the other received from Herr Adolf Neck- 
horn, was taken in Siberia; (Herr Tancré). 
So rare is the genuine egg that Wheelwright in his 
‘Sweden’ says “at ts, of Scandinavian birds, an egg only less 
difficult to obtain than the egg of the Great Auk.” Wolley’s 
collectors in Lapland, in ex years, only succeeded in 
