of the Breeding of the Waxiving. 99 



In all, Mr. AYolley obtained twenty-nine eggs of the Waxwing 

 in 1856, Later on in the autumn, an intelligent Lapp informed 

 him that he remembered having seen a bird some twenty years 

 before, and once or twice since had seen or heard another, but 

 that was perhaps ten years previously. On the other hand, in 

 1856 he had seen them some half-dozen times, and found a nest, 

 from which, however, the young ones flew. This nest he sub- 

 sequently brought very carefully, with the branch on which it was 

 built, to Mr. Wolley, by whom it was sent the following year, by 

 the hands of Dr. Edwin Nylander, to the museum of the Univer- 

 sity of Helsingfors. The Lapp added that in the spring he had 

 observed of the birds that " they flew up in the air, and came 

 and sat in the same spot whence they had flown — he thought 

 in play ; but perhaps they were catching insects,^' as Mr. AVolley 

 himself suggested. 



In 1857, it seems that the Waxwing was still more rarely 

 distributed in Lapland than it had been the preceding year. 

 Mr. Wolley was of course exceedingly desirous of taking a nest 

 with his own hands, and for this purpose devoted to the search 

 much of his time befoi'e crossing the district hitherto unex- 

 plored by him between the Muonio valley and the head-waters 

 of the Tana. In this object he was only partially successful. 

 He writes, " For myself, I could not, in spite of every exertion, 

 get a living Waxwing within range of my pair of eyes. I took 

 a nest which had been deserted a day or two before, and from 

 which something had thrown the eggs, one after another, upon 

 the ground as fast as they were laid ; of course, broken to bits. 

 It was close to the house at Sardio. In vain I wandered through 

 the woods, and scarcely shut my eyes at night. Many people 

 were on the look-out ; but, after the nest of three eggs I told you 

 of from Jerisjarvi, the only arrival has been a perfect nest of five 

 eggs found by Piko Heiki, whom I desired to give up everything 

 else, and work all the mountain-district for Waxwing." The 

 nest thus taken by Mr. Wolley, and which I intend to retain in 

 my possession, as being the only one taken by him, bears date 

 "16th June, 1857." It was built in a Spruce, and agrees in 

 most respects with those previously seen and described by him. 

 The eight eggs just mentioned were the only ones obtained by 



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