DAN MEINERTZHAGEN'S DIARY. 88 



several broods of young Ducks, Tufted and 

 Widgeon. 



June ijtb. Bob caught to-day twenty or 

 more grayling in the rapid of the big river. 

 The five young Grosbeaks are doing fairly 

 well on bread-crumbs, potato, rice, milk and 

 berries. The young Hawk Owls also seem to 

 be thriving. 



June 1 8th. There are fifty or sixty Arctic 

 Terns flying over the large rapid below the 

 town, hawking the flies floating down on the 

 surface of the water. 



We have Merganser eggs for nearly every 

 meal now, and a nicer tasting egg one could not 

 imagine. They are not half so strong in 

 flavour as an English Duck's egg. 



I've told all the people I want some Smew's 

 eggs, and also that I'll give a good price for 

 them ; it's absurd the amount of variation 

 these eggs seem to undergo, Tufted, Wid- 

 geon, Golden Eye, Merganser eggs are all 

 brought in and asserted to be Smew's ; but 

 unless they bring in the old bird and the down, 

 one cannot accept them. To-day, however, a 

 boy brought six eggs out of a Golden Eye 

 box, very like Widgeon, and these, though not 

 authenticated, might be Smew's. Perhaps a 

 microscope would detect them ; of course the 



