iYON-Ii\DIGEyOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 51 



Family AMPELID.E. Genus Ampelis. 



WAXWING. 



Ampelis garrulus, Lin?icc2is. 



(British : Nomadic autumn and \vinter migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, June. 



Breeding area : Northern Nearctic and Pal?earctlc 

 regions. The Waxwing is very erratic in its choice of 

 breeding grounds, changing them more or less capri- 

 ciously from year to year. It breeds in the pine forests 

 near the Arctic circle in both hemispheres, but its exact 

 nesting places are little known. It is widely distributed, 

 if local, in Lapland and Finland ; it has been met with 

 during summer in the valleys of the Petchora and 

 Yenesay. On the American continent its eggs have 

 been taken near Fort Yukon in Alaska, and the bird 

 observed during the breeding season in the valley of 

 the Anderson river, which locality may possibly mark 

 the limit of its eastern distribution in the New World. 



Breeding habits : The nidification of few birds is 

 surrounded with such a voluminous literature as that of 

 the Waxwing, but unfortunately most of it is the veriest 

 padding, and contains little practical information. The 

 discovery of the nest and eggs of the Waxwing is due 

 to the unwearied exertions of the late John Wolley, who 

 spent no less than five consecutive summers and two 

 of the four intervening winters in Lapland in eager 

 quest of them. Previous to his discoveries the nidifi- 

 cation of the Waxwing was surrounded by romance, 

 and the eggs were generally presumed to be laid in 

 holes in trees and rocks ! The Waxwing, like the Rose- 

 coloured Starling, is very erratic in its choice of a 

 breeding place, and appears to settle in the nearest 



