622 MERGUS ALBELLUS. 
little north of Sodankyla’.| “They were found on the 8th day ot 
the Summer-month (June) 1857. Of an old birch trunk the wood 
was rotted away, and it was left hollow, forming a hole in which 
they were.” [The expression used involves the idea of the trunk 
being still standing.] “There were two men in company, and the 
other man has given four eggs to the priest: there were seven of 
them ; but there was no down brought. * * * * The Uinilo was 
also killed, and with the eggs it too is sent.—Carl Leppajervi. First 
day of the Hay-month (July) 1857. And the priest will send the 
four Uinilo’s eggs, if you send him four eggs of Kuukili” (Garrulus 
infaustus). ‘This Uinilo was taken to the priest, and he wants for 
it 20 copecks.” 
The next, or probably the first thing in the box that struck my 
eye was a stiff-necked skin of a female Smew, with hatching spots 
on its under side; then I came to five or six much-injured eggs of 
Greenshank and other birds; and lastly, at the bottom of all, well 
wrapped in tow, were the three Smew’s, blown each with two holes, 
which I afterwards found it safe to round off with adrill. The eggs 
rather staggered me at first sight, they were so like Wigeon’s. From 
time to time I held consultations over them. On comparing them 
with a series of something lke fifty Wigeon’s eggs, I found that 
they were pretty nearly of the same size, though rather below the 
average. They were flattened at the small end more than any of 
the Wigeon’s, and they had less of the yellowish tinge about them, 
so that persons not.much used to eggs could pick them out of the 
lot ; but all these peculiarities might be accidental, though it seemed 
remarkable that any woodsman trying to pass off Wigeon’s eggs for 
Smew’s should have been able to find so abnormal a nest. But it 
was not very long before I satisfied myself that there was a decided 
difference of texture. This could be perceived on an ordinary exami- 
nation; but it became very striking on exposing the egg to direct 
sunshine and examining the penumbra, or space between full light 
and full shadow, with a magnifying glass—the sharp “ mountainous” 
 [Hermelin’s map, to which Mr. Wolley (who was never in the district) refers, 
is very old (1796), and the courses and names of the rivers thereon laid down do 
not agree with what is shewn of them in modern maps. The river on which 
Sodankyla stands is the Kittinen, and its union with the Kemi is some way below 
and to the east of that place. Doubtless, as Mr. Wolley remarks, the Liesi runs’ 
into the Kittinen, but among the many tributaries of the latter I do not see one so 
named on the Finnish Government map, and I therefore suppose the Liesi to be an 
inconsiderable stream.—ED. } 
