40 MEDELPAD. 



a hen, and the colour of a woodcock, with 

 black feathery ears or horns, and black 

 lines about the bill. I wished for my gun, 

 which I had left, finding it too troublesome 

 to carry up the hill. Immediately after- 

 wards we perceived a little plat of grass, 

 fronting the south, and guarded, as it were, 

 with rocky walls on the east and west, so 

 that no wind but from the south could 

 reach it. Here were three young birds 

 and a spotted egg*. Of these birds one 

 was as large as two fists, healthy and brisk, 

 clothed all over with very soft long whitish 

 feathers like wool. This we took away with 

 us to the house. The other two were but half 

 as large. The egg fell to pieces as I took it 

 up, and contained only a small quantity of a 

 thin watery fluid, the abominable smell of 

 which I shall not venture to describe, lest I 



* So I interpret Linnaeus's cypher in this and an- 

 other place, which is ovum Qj sum, (ovum maculo- 

 sum). If I am wrong, the candid reader will rather 

 con)pass:onate than condemn nie; yet Linnoeussays, 

 a liuie further on^, that the egg was white. 



