56 



there were as many as six. They have a pale salmcm(?)-coloured 

 ground, upon which are distributed pretty equally good-sized purple 

 spots, some with more and some with less deep colour, but nearly all 

 of them having a shade or penumbra, such as is common especially 

 in eggs of the Chaffinch. The only very marked variety I have yet 

 seen, has short streaks and much smaller and more numerous spots 

 than usual, of which markings a considerable proportion are of a 

 pale yellowish-brown. The eggs may be about an inch in length, 

 but hardly enough have been obtained to determine the average di- 

 mensions. Marked differences in size in the eggs of the same nest 

 have not yet been observed ; but, as with other birds, we find that 

 one nest may have all its eggs considerably larger than those of an- 

 other nest. 



In the backward and cold spring of 1856, Waxwings had their full 

 complement of eggs about the 12th of June. 



The writer abstains for the present from offering any remarks on 

 the distribution of this bird in the breeding season, hoping that upon 

 this subject, as upon the habits of the Waxwing in the summer, he 

 may hereafter have some more complete observations to communi- 

 cate. 



Young of the Waxwing. 



A young bird caught on the 5th of August, as it fluttered from 

 the nest, had a general resemblance to the adult, though all the co- 

 lours were more dull. The wax-like ends to the wing-feathers, the 

 yellow tip to the tail, the black patch between the eye and the beak 

 are all there, whilst the rich mahogany of the under tail-coverts is 

 of a quieter brown; the blooming vinous colour of the head and back 

 has not yet emerged from a homely neutral, and the crest is but just 

 indicated by the longish feathers of the crown. The most marked 

 difference between the adult and young is in the throat and under 

 surface generally. There is at present scarcely a trace of the deep 

 black patch of the chin, and the delicate tint of the general under 

 surface of the adult is replaced by mottled neutral and white. This 

 upon examination is found to owe its appearance to those longer 

 webs, which arising towards the root of each feather, extend as far 

 outwards as the webs which arise nearer its tip, being very pale or 

 white, and thus relieving, on both sides, the last mentioned darker 

 webs. 



Lapland Owl. Strix lapponica, Teram. 



Two nests of the Lap Owl were found in Finnish Lapland in 1856. 

 In one near Sodankyla there were two eggs, and when one of the 

 birds was shot, a third egg was found ready for exclusion. They 

 were placed on the jagged end of the stump of a large Scotch fir, 

 about 12 feet from the ground, at which spot the tree had been 

 snapped across by some storm, the upper part not yet entirely sepa- 

 rated, but sloping downwards till the greater part of its weight was 

 supported by the ground. 



The other nest was near the Aunasjoki, at the top of a lowish 

 Scotch fir. Some time previously in the same year a bird had 



