IVAXWING 1027 



regarded was enhanced by the mystery which enshrouded its birth- 

 place, and until the summer of 1856 defied the searching of any 

 explorer. In that year, however, all doubt was dispelled, through 

 the successful search in Lapland, organized by the late John 

 Wolley, as briefly described by him {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, pp. 55, 

 56, pi. cxxii.).^ In 1858 Mr. Dresser found a small settlement of 

 the species on an island in the Baltic near Uleaborg, and with his 

 own hands took a nest. It is now pretty evident that the Wax- 

 wing, though doubtless breeding yearly in some parts of northern 

 Europe, is as irregular in the choice of its summer-quarters as in 

 that of its winter-retreats. Moreover, the species exhibits the same 

 irregular habits in America. Mr. Drexler on one occasion, in 

 Nebraska, saw it in "millions." In 1861 Kennicott found it breed- 

 ing on the Yukon, and later Mr. MacFarlane had the like good 

 fortune on the Anderson Eiver. 



Beautiful as is the bird Avith its drooping crest, its cinnamon- 

 brown plumage passing in parts into grey or chestnut, and relieved 

 by black, white and yellow — all of the purest tint — the external 

 feature which has invited most attention is the " sealing-wax " 

 Avhich tips some of the secondary or cubital quills, and occasionally 

 those of the tail.^ This is nearly as much exhibited by the kindred 

 species, A. cedrorum — the well-known Cedar-bird of North America 

 — which is easily distinguished by its smaller size, less-black chin- 

 spot, the yellower tinge of the lower parts and the want of white 

 on the wings. In the A. phcenicoptera of south-eastern Siberia and 

 Japan the remiges and rectrices are tipped with red in the ordinary 

 way without dilatation of the shaft of the feathers. 



Both the Waxwing and Cedar-bird seem to live chiefly on in- 

 sects in summer, but are greatly addicted to berries during the rest 

 of the year, and will gorge themselves if opportunity allow. Hence 

 they are not pleasant cage-birds, though quicldy becoming tame. 

 The erratic habits of the Waxwing are probably due chiefly to the 

 supplies of food it may require, prompted also by the number of 

 mouths to be fed, for there is some reason to think that this varies 

 greatly from one year to another, according to season. The flocks 

 which visit Britain and other countries outside the breeding-range of 

 the species naturally contain a very large proportion of young birds. ^ 



^ A fuller account of his discovery, illustrated by Hewitson, is given in The 

 Ibis (1861, pp. 92-106, pi. iv.). 



^ The structure of these appendages has been carefully described by Herr 

 Andersen (CEfvers. K. Vet.-Ak. Fiirlmndl. 1859, pp. 219-231, pi. ii.). Their 

 development seems chiefly due to age, though, as Wolley shewed, they ai'e per- 

 ceptible in the nestlings. Mr. Turner states {Contr. Nat. Hist. Alaska, p. 177) 

 that the Eskimo name of the AVaxwing means a "killer of small birds," these 

 appendages being held to be "the clotted blood of its victims" ! 



^ The systematic position of the genus Ampclis is very doubtful. It can 



