494A CYGNUS MUSICUS. 
§ 5378. Three.—Mattairla-jirvi, Efver Tornea. 1854, 
§ 5379. Zwo—Mattairla-jarvi. 1855. 
Got at Alcola in September, 1855. They were taken in a piece 
of water near Alcola. The nest said to have been there from time 
immemorial, supported in the middle of the water by stakes. I saw 
the man’s brother, who, perhaps guided by a former letter of mine, 
had a story about there being two kinds of Swan, one with a straight 
beak, the other with a knob upon it. The eggs of 1854 were said to 
belong to the straight-billed, the other two to the knob-billed kind, 
but little reliance is to be placed on these stories. 1 hope to hear 
more about these Swans from Ludwig next year. 
{Ludwig was better employed in 1856 than in looking after Swans’ nests. 
There is no reason to suppose that the knob-billed Swan (C. olor) occurs in 
Lapland, though the locality whence these eggs came is hardly to be so 
accounted. A fourth egg from those of 1854 was sold at Mr. Stevens's, 
31 May, 1860, to Mr. Braikenridge. | 
§ 5380. Mve.—Feather-lake, Patsjoki. June, 1855. 
[This nest is duly entered in the Egg-book, but no particulars are there 
given. The story, however, is fully told in a letter from Mr. Wolley to 
Mr. Hewitson dated Patsjoki, 16 June, 1855, as follows :—] 
“‘T have found here in Russia (not Finland) a deserted Lapp hut, 
the first roof I have been under for ten days, and the weather being 
such that my boats cannot make head against it, I am taking the 
opportunity of writing to you—and with a Swan’s quill. The 
immediate object of my expedition was to find a Swan’s nest, and in . 
this I have fortunately succeeded. I am at this moment between 
two great lakes, full of islands, an Eagle’s eyrie is in a tree just over 
the rapids, and the Hoopers are trumpeting beautifully as they fly 
past between me and it. A few hours ago I counted thirty-three in 
sight at once, and the Eagle was almost in company with some of 
them—his flight not shewing to his advantage by the side of theirs. 
I am on my way from the Lake or “Sea” of Enare, not without 
hope of meeting still with another Swan’s nest; but it was on my 
passage up that I had the supreme satisfaction of first seeing one in 
all its native beauty. You can fancy what solitude a Wild Swan 
requires in the breeding-season, and here they have a fine river with 
a chain of lakes, for nearly a hundred miles of which we were certain 
