MERGUS ALBELLUS. 629 
as9tol10. The curve towards the small end is less suddenly changed 
than in the egg last described, though still the present egg is very 
broad at the small end. 
The third egg is equally flat at the small end with the second; but 
it is rather less curved from the broadest part to the commencement 
of this flat end. 
The fourth is still narrower than the last, before the flatness of 
the small end commences. 
I have previously alluded to the texture and the colour of these 
eggs. 
I have seen a MS. list of birds from the German naturalist Herr 
Hoffmansegg, then resident in Archangel, from which it appears 
that Mergus albellus occurs in that neighbourhood, which is con- 
siderably more southerly than Muonioniska, or Sodankyla. As I 
did not hear of it on the north or north-east coast of Norway, and 
as it is not known to breed in Sweden, I should be inclined to suppose 
it generally an eastern and northern bird. 
It is worthy of note that the very pale colour of the down of the 
Smew seems to be connected with its choosing holes for breeding. 
No bird of the duck kind that has white down, so far as I know, 
places its eggs in an exposed situation. 
The Goosander, Golden Eye, Sheldrake, birds differing much from 
one another, have all white down, and all lay their eggs in holes of 
trees when such are to be found, whilst one of them at least has 
well-coloured eggs. 
Beeston, Nottingham, 
December 20, 1558 [ 1858). 
[One of the seven eggs was sold at Mr. Stevens’s 23 February, 1858, to Sir 
W. Milner, a second 8 March, 1859, to Canon Tristram, and a third 31 May, 
1860, to Mr. Troughton. } 
§ 5863. Four.—Sodankyla, 1858. 
Received by Knoblock on the 18th of August by the post from 
Pastor Liljeblad in Sodankyla, having been found by Johan Ollos- 
koluvaara in a tree-stub. The pastor says that the man is honest, 
and that one can always rely on his word. 
[These eggs did not reach England till the autumn of 1859, when 
Mr. Wolley was already seriously ill, and I doubt whether he ever saw them, 
though Knoblock had doubtless written to him about them. One of them was 
sold at Mr. Stevens's, 31 May, 1860, to Mr. Powys. | 
9 
PART IV. x8 
