288 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



all over with dark ash. brown irregular blotches of two 

 shades,, crowded together at the larger end. In one of the 

 eggs I remember they formed a zone round the middle. 

 Morris's amended figure gives a good general idea of the 

 egg. It is, however, larger and much lighter coloured 

 than my eggs. His figure is copied from Schinz. Bal- 

 damus describes a nest with five eggs, taken in Hungary, 

 April 15, 1846, in a fir about six feet from the ground. 

 He says the nest was like that of the grey crow, but 

 smaller, made of fine dry fir twigs, and lined with soft grass 

 and hair, a little larger and deeper than most nests of the jay. 

 My nest was principally built of dry birch twigs, and there 

 was no hair in the lining. The description of his eggs 

 pretty well agrees with mine, and I have read two other 

 descriptions of the eggs in German books, which exactly 

 agree with my eggs. It is very probable that dwarf eggs 

 of the magpie, as well as of the Siberian jay, have been 

 represented as the eggs of the nutcracker, but my eggs 

 could not have been those of the latter, for it does not 

 breed here, and it is very unlikely that they could have 

 been the eggs of the magpie, for neither nests were domed, 

 and every egg in both nests has the same character pre- 

 cisely. Till the egg is fairly authenticated, we must, I 

 fancy, be fain to consider my eggs as genuine as any that 

 have been hitherto produced. One thing, I think, we may 

 take for granted, which is, that the nutcracker does not 

 breed in the hole of a tree, as has been hitherto stated, 

 nor lay a cream-coloured egg, for both Mr. Newton's and 

 Professor Baldamus's evidence, as well as my own (if that 

 is worth anything), speaks quite to the contrary. 



Is said by Kjarbolling only to be seen in Denmark 

 proper, during the period of migration from its more 

 northerly home. Has been seen in Finland during the 

 summer by M. v. Wright. I fancy Kjarbolling must have 

 seen authentic nest and eggs. 



Gen. Sturnus, L. 

 Beak conical, straight, differing from all the others or 



