1S2 



HARDWICXE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. l, 18GS. 



picture;* but the next day, or in the evening, it 

 was cloudy, and Ludwig saw the yellow, and now 

 he had no longer any doubt. He said he would 

 give all the lads day-money, and they must all 

 search, even if it were for a week, till they found 

 the nest. They sought all that night, and the next 

 day till about midday, when a lad called out that he 

 had found the nest; and there it was, with two eggs, 

 about nine feet high, on the branch of a spruce. . . 

 After five days, Ludwig snared the old bird, a beau- 

 tiful cock ; and you may fancy with what pleasure 

 I took it iu my hand, and saw there were no doubts 

 remaining. . . . You may fancy how eagerly I 

 waited for Ludwig to produce the eggs. With a 

 trembling hand he brought them out— but first 

 the nest, beautifully preserved. It is made princi- 

 pally of black tree-hair (lichen), with dried spruce 

 twigs outside, partially lined with a little sheep's- 

 grass and one or two feathers : a large, deep nest." 



Space will not allow me to insert more; of Mr. 

 Wolley's remarks, and I therefore extract a few 

 more notes of Professor Newton's on this interest- 

 ing subject. 



" In all, Mr. Wolley obtained twenty-nine eggs 

 of the Waxwing in 1S56. . . . Iu 1S57 it seems 

 that the Waxwing was still more rarely distributed 

 in Lapland than it had been the preceding year. . . 

 The summer of 185S, when Mr. Wolley was with 

 me in Iceland, was ' a great year for Waxwings.' 

 Not far from a hundred and fifty nests were found 

 by persons in his employment in Lapland, and some 

 of them close to Muoniovara. It seems, as nearly 

 as I have been able to ascertain, that no less than 

 six hundred and sixty-six eggs were collected, and 

 more than twenty more were obtained by Herr 

 Keitel, of Berlin, who happened— without, I believe, 

 any expectation of the luck that was in store for 

 him— to be that year on the Mnonio river. . . It is 

 unnecessary for me to go into details respecting the 

 magnificent series of eggs which Mr. Wolley was 

 thus enabled to add to his cabinet. The nests were 

 built mostly in spruce and Scotch- fir trees {Pinus 

 abies and Pinus s^m^m)— chiefly, I think, the 

 former. The usual complement of eggs is certainly 

 five, but six not uncommonly, and seven and four 

 occasionally were found. The second week of June 

 seems to be the general time for the birds to have 

 eggs, but there are some which must have been laid 

 in the last days of May, and others (perhaps second 

 broods) a month later." 



Tor an account of the finding of the Waxwing's 

 nest by Mr. H. E. Dresser, I must also refer my 

 readers to Professor Newton's paper, or perhaps 

 more particularly to Mr. Gould's " Birds of Great 



* This picture was one of several coloured sketches of 

 different birds sent to Mr. Wolley by Mr. Hewitson and my- 

 self, to assist him in waking known his wants to the natives. 

 —A. N. 



Britain," where a beautiful coloured plate of the old 

 birds, with the nest and young ones collected by 

 Mr. Dresser, are given. 



I was very much interested on learning from my 

 friend Mr. J. G. Keulemans, of Leyden, that last 

 year (1867) the Waxwings were very numerous in 

 Holland, and that he took a nest himself with four 

 eggs, which is still in his possession. He put au 

 end to all doubt as to its identity by shooting the 

 old female. 



Mr. Gould says (I.e.), "The food of the Waxwing 

 is of a mixed character, for doubtless in summer it 

 mainly subsists on insects, while in winter it feeds 

 upon berries of various kinds, particularly those of 

 the hawthorn, the mountain-ash, the holly, and the 

 ivy ; and from the numbers of this bird which 

 occasionally visit this country and Central Europe, 

 sometimes in flocks of twenties, fifties, or hundreds, 

 the supply will scarcely be equal to the demand." 



The following list of localities where the Wax- 

 wing has been obtained or observed will give a very 

 fair idea of its geographical distribution :— - 



North America (Baird, Cassin, Lawrence, &c.) ; 

 Ireland (Thompson) ; Great Britain (Gould, &c.) ; 

 Scandinavia (Nillson, Wolley, &c.) ; Denmark 

 (Kjcerbolling) ; Holland (Keulemans) ; Prance 

 (Jaubert) ; Tuscany (Savi) ; Germany (Pritch, 

 Naumann, &c.) ; S. Russia (Demidoff) ; Mosul 

 (Moeschler) ; N. Siberia (Middendorf) ; Japan 

 (Siebold, &c), N. China (Swiuhoe). 



The Waxwing is spread over the northern por- 

 tion of North America, the most southern locality 

 of that continent from which it has yet been re- 

 corded being Port Riley. Captain Blakiston, in his 

 article on the Birds of the Interior of British North 

 America,* makes the following remark : " The 

 European Waxwing was obtained by both Mr. 

 Drummond and Sir John Richardson, as recorded in 

 the 'Pauna Bor. Am.' iu the Mackenzie river 

 district, and specimens and eggs have since been 

 collected in that locality by Mr. Bernard Ross and 

 Mr. R. Kennicott. A specimen was shot in Feb- 

 ruary, which stamps it as a much more northern 

 bird than the following species (Ainpelis cedrorum)." 



Iu conclusion, I may add that the locality Mosul 

 is inserted on the faith of a pair of birds collected 

 by P. Moeschler, which I purchased along with a 

 Nutcracker (N. canjocatacks), all labelled by him 

 as coming from that place. 



R. B. Siiarpe. 



Salmon - breeding. — Mr. Tegetmeier recently 

 called the attention of the Zoological Society to 

 the great progress made in salmon- breeding in 

 the ponds of Stormontfield, on the Tay, which he 

 attributed principally to the young fishes having 

 been fed on a species of Limncea. 



* Il/is, !863, p. 6a. 



