202 PHALAROPUS FULICARIUS. 
the next morning, when I intended to take them away, they had disappeared. 
Two days later another nest was found with three eggs, which I ordered the 
discoverer to take away immediately. This done, I packed them in a tin box 
and smooth ashes, and sent them to Reykjavik. But when my son had opened 
the box in Reykjavik, to pack the eggs, according to Geir Zoega’s! directions, 
they were all broken on account of the oscillation caused by forwarding them 
on horseback. When I heard this I was vexed and ordered a new search on 
the spot where the birds had been seen. At last after considerable trouble one 
nest and three eges were found, of which I was very glad. To-day I send 
these eggs to Keflavik together with a letter to Zoega, in case there should be 
communication by sea with Reykjavik, and I have asked him to pack them up 
better, and take care that they may reach you as soon as possible...... I 
should like to hear from you and know if this packet reaches you all safe. 
* Your friend, 
““S. B. S1vERTSEN.” 
Four eggs, however, arrived, whence I conclude that Geir Zoega thought 
that one of the first lot was good enough to send, but they were in a deplorable 
condition, unblown and half putrid, and as I was immediately leaving home 
for the continent I put them into spirit, where they remained until the 
following summer, when Mr. Salvin took them in hand, and mounting their 
shattered shells on eggs of Temminck’s Stint, selected to fit them, made very 
respectable specimens of them. I exhibited them: at a meeting of the 
Zoological Society, 24 January, 1867, and one of them was afterwards figured in 
its ‘ Proceedings’ (ut supra). I mentioned them also in the ‘‘ Notes” which I 
contributed to Mr. Baring-Gould’s ‘Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas’ (London : 
1863, p. 412).] 
[§ 3959. Zhree.—Egedesminde, June, 1864. From Herr 
Zimmer, through Pastor ‘heobald, 1866. 
P.Z.S. 1867, p. 166. 
The Pastor wrote :—* You will find three eggs of Phalaropus rufus, with 
the birds, in the box. They are from Egedesminde, a station in the northern 
part of Greenland, where this species is the most common. Mr, Zimmer, 
formerly Administrator of the above-named Danish colony, brought them from 
that place last year. Inhabitants, instructed by him, caught the parent birds 
on the nest, at the end of June 1864, and there cannot be the least doubt that 
they {the eggs] are well authenticated and identified. They were laid in a 
separate box together with the birds. Besides, Mr. Zimmer is a very honest 
man and a good friend of Mr. Erichsen. As the skins are of no value, in this 
case I thought it proper to let them [go] in company with the eggs. Perhaps 
the eggs and parent birds may still be interesting to you, although I think the 
egg is no rarity at all now.” Herr Theobald sent at the same time a nest of 
eggs of the other species of Phalarope, taken also by Herr Zimmer (§ 3953).} 
’ [Our excellent guide and interpreter in 1858.—Ip,] 
