EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 233 



A full clutch of eggs is usually four or five. They are creamy- 

 white in ground-colour, sometimes with an almost imperceptihle 

 tinge of pink, sparingly spotted with very dark purplish-brown. 

 The spots vary considerably in size and shape, but are almost 

 invariably well denned; on many specimens there are a few 

 underlying spots of purplish-grey. The shell is rather rough in 

 texture, but highly polished. They vary in length from 135 to 

 11 inch, and in breadth from 093 to 0'8 inch. 



THE WAX WING. 

 (Ampelis garrulus.) 



Plate 54, Fig. 19. 



This charming and interesting bird may be regarded as an 

 irregular winter visitor to Great Britain, having been met with 

 in almost every county, in some years in considerable numbers. 



The Waxwing is almost a circumpolar bird, breeding in the 

 pine-regions of both hemispheres at or near the Arctic circle. 

 A nest of this bird, which Mr. Nordvi procured for me from 

 Muonioniska, is a large and very compact structure. The outside 

 diameter is seven inches, and the inside four inches. It is about 

 four inches high outside, and nearly two inches deep. The 

 foundation is made of twigs and a little moss and inner bark, the 

 feathers being most numerous in the lining. 



Five or six, and occasionally seven, is the number of eggs laid. 

 Professor Newton describes them as measuring from I'll to 0'82 

 inch in length, by 0"73 to 064 inch in breadth. He writes :— 

 " The around 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-grey. On this are almost 

 always bold blotches, spots, and specks of deep brownish-black, 

 though sometimes the edges are blurred. Beneath these stronger 

 markings there is nearly always a series of blotches or streaks of 

 greyish-lilac, and among them well-defined spots or specks of 

 yellowish-brown are interspersed. In some eggs the darkest 

 markings are quite wanting, in others the ground is of a deep 

 olive colour." 



