2GG INDIAN Di;CKS. 



AVcire .<ays be took what he believed to be eggs of this species near 

 GriefsMuld in Germany, but there Mas litth' by -which lie could identify 

 them beyond the size and colour of the eggs and the fact that they were 

 taken from a hollow tree. He did not oljtain or see the parents, and 

 though he was very likely right in his identification, they cannot be 

 accepted as authentic without doubt. 



]Mr. J.Wolley, in the ' Iljis ' for 1859, p}). 09-76, described at considerable 

 length how he obtained eggs of the Smew through a certain Carl Leppa- 

 jervi from Sodankyla. After trying for a long time to obtain eggs, without 

 the sliohtest success, he received a small wooden box addressed " To the 

 English gentleman Joh "Woleg in Muoniovaara." In this box, amongst other 

 things, there was the head of a female >Smew and three eggs, part of a 

 clutch of seven. These three eggs were described l.iy Wolley as follows: — 

 'On comparing them with a series of something like fifty ^^ igeon's 

 eggSj I found they were jiretty nearly of the same size, though rather 

 below the average. They were flattened at the small end more than any 

 of the Wigeon's, and they had less of the yellow tinge about them, so 

 that persons not much used to eggs could pick them out of the lot ; but 

 all these peculiarities might be accidental, though it seemed remarkable 

 that any woodsman trying to pass off "Wigeon's eggs for Smew's should 

 have been able to find so abnormal a nest. But it was not very long 

 before I satisfied myself that there was a decided difference of texture. 

 This could be perceived on an ordinary examination : but it became very 

 striking on exj)Osing the egg to direct sunshine and examining the 

 penumbra, or space between full light and full shadow, with a magnifying 

 glass — the sharp ' mountainous' structure of the "Wigeon's egg was strongly 

 contrasted with the lower and more rounded character of the elevations in 

 the Smew's. . . . Further, I tried the sense of touch : scratching the egg 

 with the most sensitive of my finger-nails I could at once perceive the greater 

 roughness of the AVifjeon's. . . . The ivorv-like texture of the Goosander's 

 egg was a pretty parallel to the character of the Smew's." 



Afterwards, Wolley received from the priest Liljeblad the other four 

 eggs of the set, and with them the rest of the remains of the duck Smew, 

 the head of which had been sent to him with the first three. 



The dimensions of these eggs he gives as 2-04 to 2*05 inches in length 

 and from 1'42 to 1*52 in breadth. 



They are described by Wolley at great length, but briefly may be said 

 to have been broad ovals, one end very much smaller than the other, yet 

 decidedlv obtuse. 



