358 ANATID^E. 



from six to ten in number ; in one instance twelve eggs 

 were found in one nest. The eggs are of a pale green- 

 ish white, with a tinge of buff colour; the length two 

 inches two lines, by one inch and a half in breadth. 

 These birds are expert divers, feeding in shallow water 

 on rnollusca, Crustacea, and marine insects. In the 

 stomachs of two examined by myself, I found the remains 

 of our common mussel and shrimps. The flesh of this 

 species is coarse, hard, and fishy. 



This Duck is found among the Faroe Islands ; and the 

 notes of Richard Dann, Esq. in reference to this species in 

 Scandinavia, are as follows : " The Long-tailed Ducks 

 are very numerous on the coasts of Norway and Sweden 

 during the winter, but are seen in greatest numbers off 

 the coast of Scona. Towards the middle of March they 

 begin to draw north, and by the latter end of May 

 appear in vast numbers on the streams and lakes in the 

 mountain-range which divides Finmark from Swedish 

 Lapland. As the season advances they take themselves 

 to the more elevated and smaller lakes, but in Lapland 

 are not generally found within the range of the dwarf- 

 birch. I have seen great numbers on the Calix lakes. 

 In the Dofre Fiell, a few straggling pairs make their 

 appearance and breed. They arrived the last week in 

 May, on the lakes and swamps within the range of the 

 birch, and continued to increase in numbers until the 

 14th of June, when I lost sight of them on the lakes 

 where they had been most abundant. On ascending, 

 however, to the small lakes in the valleys still higher 

 up the mountains, and at an elevation where the creeping- 

 birch and dwarf- willow can only vegetate, I again found 

 them in pairs the last week in June; the ice had not 

 then entirely disappeared on these lakes. In July, I again 



