on the IVaxwing Nesting in a British Aviary. 359


given by former writers respecting the nidification of this bird.

The very plain statement communicated by Mr. Wolley to the

Zoological Society on the evening of the 24th of March, 1S57, is

sufficient to set them at rest for ever. But still I may remark

that from the days of Linnaeus (who said of it, ‘ Nidus in rupium

antiis ’) downwards, nearly all the conjectures published seem to

have been wide of the mark. In years gone by, one of the

hardiest of our Arctic explorers, Sir John Richardson, had failed

to ascertain anything connected with its breeding in the far

countries of the north-west; and, more recently, the intrepid

Siberian traveller, Dr. A. Von Middendorf, was unsuccessful in

the north-east. Yet it may be safely said that there was no bird

whose egg was so longed for by the ornithologists of the whole

world. Various were the plans they bethought them of for

attaining this desideratissimum. Many tried to keep pairs of

living birds, in the hope of inducing them to breed in confine¬

ment. 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 oologist might be

found with whom the ‘ wish was father to the thought,’ and who

accordingly deluded himself into the belief that in some un¬

usually large specimen of the egg of the allied species ( Ampelis

cedrorum ), or in some queerly-coloured monstrosity of a bird,

perhaps not at all connected, he recognised a genuine production

of Ampelis garrulus ; but such instances were certainly excep¬

tional, and there can be little doubt that prior to 1856 no one

with any pretension to the title of naturalist had ever set eyes on

a real egg or nest of the Waxwing, and that this privilege was

reserved for one who of all men eminently merited it. It is due,

however, to Scandinavian naturalists to say that several of them

who had travelled in Lapland had expressed themselves con¬

fident that the bird did sometimes 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 be probably

incorrect, yet it was, I think, reliance on the general fidelity of

those gentlemen 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 ful-



