94 Mr. A. Newton on Mr. J. Wolley's Discovery 



pairs of living birds^ in the hope of inducing them to breed in 

 confinement. One enthusiastic egg-collector. Baron R. von 

 Konig-Warthausen, we are told, even went to the trouble of 

 caging a whole flock*. It is true that here and there an oolo- 

 gist might be found, with whom the " wish was father to the 

 thought," and who accordingly deluded himself into the belief 

 that in some unusually large specimen of the egg of the allied 

 species {Ampelis cedrorum), or in some queerly-coloured mon- 

 strosity of a bird perhaps not at all connected, he recognized a 

 genuine production of Ampelis garrulus; but such instances 

 were certainly exceptional, and there can be little doubt that, 

 prior to 1856, no one with any pretension to the title of natu- 

 ralist had ever set eyes on a real egg or nest of the "VVaxwing, 

 and that this privilege was reserved for one who of all men 

 eminently merited it. It is due, however, to Scandinavian na- 

 turalists to say, that several of them who had travelled in Lap- 

 land had expressed themselves confident that the bird did some- 

 times breed in that country; and though the reports of its 

 nesting, which some of them brought home, have been shown 

 by Mr. Wolley's discovery to have been probably incorrect, t yet 

 it was, I think, reliance on the general fidelity of those gentle- 

 men in matters of this kind which kept alive my friend's hopes 

 of one day finding the long-sought treasure ; but hopes they 

 were of a kind so remote, that when they were fulfilled he was 

 justified in speaking of the discovery as " unexpected." 



The first intimation I received from Mr. Wolley that the dis- 

 covery was accomplished was contained in a letter written by 

 him on his way up the Baltic, and dated 2nd Sept. 1856. He 

 says, " Let me tell you now, whilst I think of it, that I have 

 some reason for believing that the Waxwing makes its nest in 

 good-sized fir-trees in the month of June. I give you this hint 

 in case I should not live to give you more certain information ; 



* Dr. E. Baldamus in ' Naumannia,' 1858, p. 131. 



t Compare J. W.Zetterstedt, Resa gen. Svv. oeli Norr. Lappm. i. p. 272. 

 ' Tidskrift f6r Jagare,' W. von Wright, p. 289 ; C. U. Ekstrom, p. 706 ; 

 G. A. Bergenstrale and J. Holmstedt, p. 726 ; A. Wigart, p. 1087. L. Lloyd, 

 Scand. Advent, ii. p. 312. H. D. J. Wallengren, in 'Naumannia,' 1854, 

 p. 123. S. Nilsson, Skand. Faun. Foglarna, ed. 3. i. p. 242. 



