All rights reserved?^ [SEPTEMBER, 1906 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE JOURNAI. OF 



THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



^be Maywing. 



{Ampelis garrulus). 

 By W. T. Greene, M.A., M.D., F.Z.S. 



Ornithologists of old, as well as at least one 

 dramatist, must have had somewhat hazy notions 

 about geography, or they would not, in the one case, 

 have made Bohemia an island, or, in the other, have 

 coupled its name with that of a bird which is an in- 

 habitant of the circum-polar regions of our hemi- 

 sphere. However that may be, the Waxwing, as we 

 call it to-day, was formerly known by the name of 

 Bohemian Chatterer, A chatterer — (^Ampelis garrulus) 

 — most undoubtedly it is, but it has no more con- 

 nection with the province of the Austrian Empire of 

 which it was given the name, than with our own 

 country, or, indeed, less, for some of these birds visit 

 England almost every winter, arriving sometimes in 

 considerable numbers, which, alas ! are sadly reduced 

 by gunners and trappers, before the remnant that 

 escapes takes its departure from our inhospitable 

 shores in the Spring. 



Ampelis garrulus, however, if incorrectly named 

 in one case, has another appropriate and descriptive 

 designation, namely, Waxwing, by which it is now 

 generally known, for several of the secondary and 

 tertiary feathers in the wing, as well as, in some in- 

 stances, the central quills of the tail, are tipped with an 



