Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 136

The Collection of Wild Birds’ Eggs and Nestlings in Sweden
144
(Broman 3, p. 305). This strange idea is also vouched for in later
folk tradition, for example, from Liden in Medelpad (E. u. 35207)
and is also known from Finland. “It is uncertain whether there is
any real basis for these ideas about the nest stick.” (Stora, 1966,
pp. 198 f.)
A difficulty arose because, of course, people wanted the fresh
eggs and it was impossible to decide at once which eggs were fresh.
It is related that they were tested by placing them in water, when
the eggs on which the bird had been sitting for a long time would
assume a vertical position with one end upward, while if the egg
lay on its side, the bird had not finished laying. In the latter case,
the eggs could be used and were taken, with the exception of two
or three which were left behind as nest eggs. There are reports from
several places in eastern Sweden to the effect that artificial nest eggs
were made of wood, which facilitated sorting. Such wooden eggs
are mentioned by Broman from Halsingland (Broman 3, p. 305)
but were common on Gotland too, where they were also used in
scoters’ nests (Save 1, no. 1185). The method has been known in
recent times in Ostergotland (Lindquist, 1926, p. 174) and was also
used by the Swedish-speaking population on the Estonian island
of Rago (Soderbáck, 1940, p. 182).
Searching the nesting-boxes called for great caution and care.
The usual practice was to search the box when the female had tem-
porarily left the nest, but there are also reports that experienced
egg collectors could remove eggs from under the sitting bird. A
writer from Fjállsjo in Ángermanland describes how in his youth,
around the turn of the century, he helped a neighbour to search
his nesting-boxes: “On a long stick, he had fastened a small bucket,
which he passed up to me when I had climbed up to the goldeneye
boxes, where I gathered the eggs and carefully laid them in the
bucket” (Rehn, 1967, p. 105). An informant from the neighbour-
hood of Lake Sommen in Ostergotland states that a wooden spoon
was used in taking the eggs of the diver and the merganser, but this
seems incredible (E. u. 14318, received in 1939, informant born in
1880). On the other hand, I should mention the use also in Sweden
of a ladle in taking guillemot eggs. As is well known, the guillemot