1861.] MR. A. NEWTON ON RARE BIKDS' EGGS. 395 



According to Herr Wallengren (' Naumanuia,' 1854, p. 78), Pro- 

 fessor Lilljeborg on June 3rd, 1843, found on the Dovrefjeld a nest 

 of this bird, containing seven eggs, placed on a little shelf on the 

 top of a bare mountain, far from the forest, and easy of access. Pro- 

 fessor Nilssou mentions ('Skand. Faun.' ed. 3, II. i. p. 101, note), 

 on the authority of my friend Herr A. G. Nordri, that the Lapps in 

 East Finmark assert that the Snowy Owl lays from eight to ten eggs 

 in a little depression of the bare ground on the high mountains. 

 These accounts are in every way corroborated by the information 

 obtained by Mr. John Wolley, during his long sojourn in Lapland. 

 He several times met with persons who had found nests of this Owl, 

 and states ('Forhandl. Skand. Naturf.' 7de Mode, p. 221) that he 

 was told the old birds sometimes attack persons that approach their 

 nests. He was, however, unsuccessful in obtaining their eggs. They 

 seem to breed commonly in the districts explored by him only when 

 the Lemmings are unusually abundant. From his chief agent, who 

 is now in my own employment, I learn that from the 1 Cth to the 

 24th of May is supposed to be the time when they usually' breed, 

 and that in 1860 a Lapp, who was not, unfortunately, one of his re- 

 gular collectors, found a nest with six eggs, which, instead of preserv- 

 ing, he ate. 



Many specimens, said to be the eggs of this bird, have of late been 

 received by European oologists, all of which so closely agree with 

 one another, and differ so much from those of other Owls, that I 

 believe they have been rightly assigned. Some are stated — with 

 what truth I know not — to have come from Count Hoffmansegg, 

 who a few years ago was collecting around Archangel. The majority, 

 however, are from the Moravian missionaries in Labrador. One of 

 these, which I now exhibit, I obtained this last autumn at Herrnhut 

 from Herr Moschler. He received it with several others in 1860 

 from Okkak, one of the four stations maintained on that coast by 

 the United Brethren. He has had in all more than two dozen from 

 that quarter. The Esquimaux find them and bring them to the 

 missionaries ; and the accounts they give tally exactly with those I 

 have just quoted from other sources. The bird always breeds on 

 the ground in bare places, and often lays a considerable number of 

 eggs. The second egg I exhibit is also from Herr Moschler, but 

 received by me through the intervention of Dr. Baldamus. It is 

 stated to have come from North-eastern Russia ; but more concern- 

 ing it I do not know. 



Mr. Hewitson has twice figured (' Eggs B. B.' ed. 2, pi. 12*., and 

 ed. 3, pi. 18. f. 3) the specimen to which I have before alluded, from 

 the collection of Mr. Wilmot, who has kindly informed me he re- 

 ceived it with another from a missionary station in Labrador, whence 

 in the preceding year two young birds, taken from the same nest, 

 had been brought by the same person. 



GOLD-VENTED ThRUSH. 



Pycnonotus aiirigaster (Vieill.). 



As far as I know, this is the only egg received in England which 



