CDEMIA FUSCA. 571 
of the nest. Further up the country the bird is not so scarce, and I 
saw several small flocks in working my way up the flooded river to 
Norway. There is, however, one large lake called Jerisjarvi, with 
several low mountains about it, near here, that is only some 
fifteen or twenty miles away, where almost every year a nest or two 
of the Velvet Scoter is found. JI have looked for them in vain 
myself on nearly all the islands in that piece of water, but people 
who have taken them before know better where to find them. Two 
eges were sent to me at the beginning of July by a man who lives 
there. I have since’ talked to him about them and see no reason to 
doubt their genuineness, especially as other persons who know the 
eges say they are truly Aorri’s or Kolso’s, which about here are the 
names of the Velvet Scoter. He found them under a juniper bush 
on an island, and saw the bird perfectly well. He had taken them 
in former years near the same place. The Velvet Scoter is unmis- 
takable (there at least), that I think you need not feel any hesitation 
in drawing from these eggs, especially as they are very characteristic 
both from their great size and from the rosy hue of their peculiar 
surface, about which there is something that reminds me of the look 
of a prickly pear. No doubt when the eggs were fresh the colour 
was brighter than it is now. Ona hillside the Velvet Scoter. makes 
its nest under the sweeping branches of a small Norway pine, if such 
is to be met with, but in the colder regions of the country it must 
find some other shelter. When it prefers an island, which it more 
seldom does, in the inhabited districts at least, it chooses a dry spot 
a few yards from the water edge. It is one of the latest breeders 
among the Ducks, commencing only after midsummer; it seems 
from all accounts to be very variable in the number of its eggs. 
(‘The above is from the letter to Mr. Hewitson from which abstracts have 
already been given (pp. 531, 545), but Mr. Wolley’s experience of this bird 
wus considerably increased subsequently. | 
§ 5668. Zwo.—Kulkiarvi, 1854. 
Hewitson, ‘ Egos of British Birds,’ ed. 3, pl. exvi. fig. 2. 
Sent to me from Ravuhula, at the end of Jerisjarvi, under the 
name of Kolso [Velvet Scoter], by the hand of Rauhula’s Daniel. 
The people there had before told me that they find the nest of this 
bird every year.—P.S. 5 November. Today Matthias of Rauhula 
says that it was he that found the nest, which was under a juniper 
