52 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



convenient spot to where its nomadic winter wanderings 

 have led it. One season it may breed in a locaHty in 

 vast abundance, and perhaps not a solitary pair will 

 resort to the old station the season following. The 

 Waxwing is chiefly gregarious during the nesting 

 period, and breeds in large scattered colonies. Of its 

 pairing habits nothing appears to have been observed. 

 Its favourite breeding grounds are the more open 

 forests of fir and spruce intermixed with birches. The 

 nest is made at a moderate height from the ground — ■ 

 eight to twelve feet — on a branch, and is composed ex- 

 ternally of dead twigs and reindeer-moss, and lined with 

 dry grass, quantities of a hair-like black tree lichen, 

 strips of inner birch bark, and feathers. It is cup- 

 shaped, bulky, and rather deep, the cavity containing 

 the eggs being about four inches in diameter and two 

 inches in depth. Many nests of the Waxwing have 

 been secured since Wolley's day, but the eggs have 

 never been taken in such vast numbers as they were by 

 his collectors in the summer of 1858, when the spoil 

 reached the tempting total of nearly seven hundred eggs 

 from nearly one hundred and fifty nests ! 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Waxwing are from five to seven in 

 number. Most of the magnificent series of eggs obtained 

 by WoUey remain in the collection of Professor Newton, 

 and I cannot do better than give the description of them 

 in the latter gentleman's own words. '' The ground is 

 most generally of a delicate sea-green, sometimes fading 

 to French white, but very often of a more or less pale 

 olive, and occasionally of a dull purplish-gray. On this 

 arc almost always bold blotches, spots, and specks of 

 deep brownish-black [blackish-brown would be a better 

 expression, as no eggs are known to be marked with 

 black\ though sometimes the edges are blurred. Be- 



