94 
EMBEIIIZID.'E. 
custom to allow a purcliaser to name the eggs according to Ids 
own idea or belief, and to pay accordingly, the dealer knowing 
more about hsh and hosiery than about eggs, especially of so 
small a size. No certainty in the matter was arrived at until 
the 2nd July 1801, when a man discovered a nest and three 
fresh es^^s, all of which he brought to me. He had found them 
in the crevice of a rock near the top of one of the high sea-cliffs 
at Burrafirth, below the hill of Saxaford. The nest was rather 
shallow, and was composed of coarse grass and fibrous roots, 
lined with wool and fine hair of horses and cows. After this I 
often observed the birds in the breeding season, once in July, 
about the cliffs at Graveland, but usually near the old spot. 
The most likely place for the nest being among loose stones, 
and exceedingly dangerous, and a j)Oor man having lost his life 
near that spot soon afterwards, it was long before I saw any 
more of the eggs. However, I certainly observed, and took 
good care to purchase, three more which I saw in the dealer’s 
box in the winter of 1867, he stoutly maintaining that they 
were “ larks ” of some kind, and that Greenland fishermen had 
often told him that Snow Bunting’s eggs were blue. In the 
same collection were some common bunting’s eggs, but these 
the man knew, although they are by no means freq.uently met 
with. He could give me no information as to their history, 
it being his custom to exchange goods for eggs, valuing the 
latter, in those days, at about fourpence per dozen. 
One of the main objects, during my long and weary ex- 
patriation, was a thorough acquaintance with the Snow 
Bunting, and its habits at all times of the year, an object, alas ! 
but very imperfectly attained. It is pleasing, however, to call 
to mind that the last among the records of my sojourn in 
Slietland is connected with this bird. Immediately before my 
final departure in 1871, a man who used to collect for me 
l)rouglit, as a present, a Snow Bunting’s nest and four eggs, 
confessing that he had found them among the stones of the 
demolished cairn on Saxaford tlie summer before, l)ut tliat he 
liad been kee])ing tliem for a gentleman who liad promised him 
