BOHEMIAN WAXWING 75 



in smaller numbers, in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New 

 York, and New England, these localities being far removed from its 

 breeding grounds. Where food conditions are favorable, its winter 

 sojourn may begin early in October and continue beyond the middle 

 of April; the exact dates for different localities will be given under 

 "Distribution." 



There have been several well-marked invasions recorded, in which 

 these waxwings appeared in unusual localities and in enormous num- 

 bers. The most conspicuous flights occurred in the winters of 1908- 

 09, 1916-17, 1919-20, and 1930-31. The first of these reported inva- 

 sions covered such widely separated localities as New England, Iowa, 

 and Colorado. The New England records are given in detail by 

 Horace W. Wright ( 1921) , to which the reader is referred. For Iowa, 

 Miss Althea E. Sherman (1921) reported that — 



on December 29, 1908, the day the Bohemian Waxwings arrived, a vast flock 

 of birds was seen by two observei's at points a half mile apart. * * * The 

 first observer was Mr. Jerome Jones, who stated that soon after daylight a vast 

 flock of birds flew over his head, "millions of them" he estimated ; that they 

 covered the sky and were several minutes in passing. * * * The other ob- 

 server was Mrs. D. A. Wright, whose description of the flock was written down 

 soon after it passed and was substantially as follows: About eight o'clock in 

 the morning she saw a flock, containing thousands of birds, fly northeast. They 

 flew as closely together as birds ever do and covered a space from two hundred 

 to three hundred feet in width and were two or three minutes in passing. She 

 believed they were Bohemian Waxwings, nine of \^'hich for the following 

 eighteen days frequented her mountain ash tree. There seems to be no other 

 species to which to assign the birds of this great flock. 



During the winter of 1916-17 there was a great invasion of these 

 waxwings throughout the western part of the country, at least from 

 Washington to Colorado. Mr. Rathbun has sent me the following 

 account of the birds that visited Seattle : 



"The great incursion of the winter of 1916-17 will long be remem- 

 bered, for many, many thousands of individuals of the species were in 

 the region at that time. As nearly as can be ascertained, this species 

 made its first appearance about December 10, in flocks of considerable 

 size ; but, on the 26th or 27th, the great body of the birds arrived num- 

 bering thousands of individuals, which thereafter for some consider- 

 able period could be observed almost every day within a comparatively 

 restricted area some six miles in length along the eastern border of the 

 city, adjacent to Lake Washington. This was accounted for by the 

 fact that within this particular section there was an abundant food 

 supply in the form of the berries of the madrona tree {Arbutus men- 

 ziesii) , which had fruited with unusual abundance the past season, and 

 of which the waxwings appeared very fond ; it was not uncommon at 

 times to count in one of the larger trees upward of five hundred of 

 the birds. 



