75 
Mr J. Wolley on the Breeding of the Smew. 
1st egg 
2nd egg 
3rd egg 
4th egg 
Greatest length. 
. 2’04 inches. 
205 
204 
2*04 
)> 
)) 
}> 
Greatest breadth. 
1*52 inch. 
1-47 
1-43 
1-42 
}) 
)) 
a 
Of the first egg, the widest part is exactly halfway down ; 
but in one direction the inferior fulness of the curve points out 
which is the small end of the egg; though, were there cut out of 
the middle of each end a piece of the shell bounded by a circle 
of a quarter of an inch in radius, I think, as the pieces lay upon 
a level surface, the piece from the small end of the egg would be 
found less elevated than the other piece. In other words, the 
small end of the egg is even more flattened than the large end, 
though the flattened area there is not so extensive as that of the 
large end. 
Of the second egg, the conjugate diameter is nearer to the 
large end than it is to the small end, the proportion of the 
distances being as 9 to 10. The curve towards the small end is 
less suddenly changed than in the egg last described, though 
still the present egg is very broad at the small end. 
The third egg is equally flat at the small end with the second; 
but it is rather less curved from the broadest part to the com¬ 
mencement of this flat end. 
The fourth is still narrower than the last, before the flatness 
of the small end commences. 
I have previously alluded to the texture and the colour of 
these eggs. 
I have seen a MS. list of birds from the German naturalist 
Herr Hoffmansegg, then resident in Archangel, from which it 
appears that Mergus albellus occurs in that neighbourhood, which 
is considerably more southerly than Muonioniska, or Sodankyla. 
As I did not hear of it on the north or north-east coast of 
Norway, and as it is not known to breed in Sweden, I should 
be inclined to suppose it generally an eastern and northern 
bird. 
It is worthy of note, that the very pale colour of the down of 
the Smew seems to be connected with its choosing holes for 
