308 Zoological Society 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



March 24, 1857.—Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the Chair. 

 On the Nest and Eggs of the Waxwing (Bombycilla 



GARRULA, TeMM.). By JoHN WoLLEY, JuN., EsCl. 



The Waxwing, as observed in Lapland, makes a good-sized and 

 substantial nest, but without much indication of advanced art. It is 

 of some depth, and regularly shaped, though built of rather intrac- 

 table materials. As in those of many other birds in the Arctic 

 forests, the main substance is the kind of lichen commonly called 

 tree-hair, which hangs so abundantly from the branches of almost 

 every tree. This lichen somewhat resembles a mass of delicate root- 

 lets, or perhaps may be compared to coarse brown wool ; but some 

 of it is whitish, and in one nest there is a little of this mixed with 

 the ordinary brown or black. This main substance of the nest is 

 strengthened below by a platform of dead twigs, and higher up to- 

 wards the interior by a greater or less amount of flowering stalks of 

 grass, and occasionally pieces of equisetum. It is also interspersed 

 with a little reindeer lichen, perhaps a sprig or two of green moss, 

 and even some pieces of willow cotton. There may also be observed 

 a little of the very fine silvery-looking fibre of grass leaves which 

 probably have been reduced to that condition by long soaking in 

 water. In one of the nests examined there were several pen-feathers 

 of small birds as an apology for a lining. Of other nests which are 

 to be found in the same forest, it most resembles, but is considerably 

 less than that of the Siberian Jay, which however is less securely 

 put together, but has many more feathers and soft materials for a 

 lining. 



The nest of the Waxwing is built on the branch of a tree, not 

 near the bole, and rather, as one of the observers has said, standing 

 up from the branch like a Fieldfare's or other Thrush's nest, than 

 supported by twigs touching it at the sides, as the nests of many 

 birds are supported. Of six nests, four were in small Spruces, one 

 in a good-sized Scotch fir, and one in a Birch — all placed at a height 

 of from 6 to 1 2 feet above the ground. The tree in several instances 

 was unhealthy, thin and scraggy in its branches, to which there hung 

 a good deal of hair lichen ; and the nest seems generally much ex- 

 posed, though from its resemblance to the lichen hanging near, it 

 might escape the eye. The nests found were in parts of the forest 

 considerably open, once or twice on the side of low hills, near a river, 

 or with an undergrowth of dwarf swamp-loving shrubs. But at 

 present we have scarcely enough examples to show that there is a 

 preference for any particular kind of ground. 



Five seems to be the ordinary number of eggs ; in one nest only 

 there were as many as six. They have a pale salmon (?)-coloured 

 ground, upon which are distributed pretty equally good-sized purple 

 spots, some with more and some with less deep colour, but nearly all 



