Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



362



have also told you, it seemed to be known to a very few wood¬

men on that side of the country under the name of “ Korwa-

rastas" or “ Korwa - Hutu” (Ear-bird). It had occasionally

attracted their attention as having feathers on its head standing

up like Squirrel’s ears. It was not till the second year of my

stay here that I ascertained this with certainty. The first

summer I believed it to be “ Harr hi'' a bird coming in bad

seasons, and properly the common Jay ; but it seems that this

name is also really sometimes given to Sidensvans, and therefore,

as well as for other reasons, I am inclined to believe that the

bird is only here very occasionally.”


I11 his “Dictionary,” Professor Newton tells us:—“In

1S58 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 Waxwing, 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.’ ”


From the “ Royal Natural History” I cull the following:—

“ Great interest for many years attached to the nesting-habits ot

the Bohemian Waxwing, which were surrounded by mystery

until solved by Messrs. Dresser and Wolley. The former of

these ornithologists found the Waxwing breeding in Finland in

the year 1858, onl) r two years after the latter had obtained the

nest of a Waxwing in Lapland. Writing of his nest-hunting

experiences, Mr. Dresser says that, after finding a tree in which

a Waxwing built, ‘I climbed up to the nest, which was in the

fork between the main stem and the first branch, and not above

nine or ten feet from the ground.’ ” The nest contained five

young ones.


And in Sharpe’s “ British Birds” we find:—“ Its breeding

quarters are the pine regions in the north of the Old and

New Worlds, about the line of the Arctic Circle. It has been

recorded as nesting in North-eastern Norway, in Lapland, in

Finland, and Mr. Seebolmi says that he met with it during the



