I BRITISH BIRDS. 
been obtained there. I have seen it in its breeding-season in the valleys 
of the Petchora and the Yenesay; and Middendorff met with it during 
winter on the shores of the Sea of Ochotsk. Mr. Dall states that its eggs 
have been obtained near Fort Yukon in Alaska; and it has been found 
during the breeding-season in the valley of the Anderson River, north of 
the Great Bear Lake. It possibly may not breed further east in America ; 
but very little is known of the arctic regions of either continent, and the 
Waxwing is so erratic in its habits, breeding in enormous numbers in a 
certain district for some seasons and then almost deserting it for several 
years, that it may easily have been overlooked. 
The Waxwing is as erratic in its choice of winter-quarters. It is a 
very irregular migrant, wandering southwards on the approach of cold 
weather, and revisiting the north whenever a thaw of sufficient length 
occurs. Throughout Central Europe it isa tolerably regular winter visitor. 
It occurs accidentally on Heligoland, and occasionally strays as far west 
as France and as far south as Lombardy and Turkey, but has not yet been 
recorded from Spain or Greece. It winters in South Siberia, occasionally 
straying as far as Turkestan, Mongolia, North China, and the north 
island of Japan. In America its winter range extends as far south as 
Lakes Michigan and Erie ; but it appears to be only an accidental straggler 
further east, and it is doubtful if it has ever occurred west of the Rocky 
Mountains. 
One of the nearest allies of the Waxwing is the Japanese Waxwing 
(A. phenicoptera), which breeds in Japan and wanders in winter to the valley 
of the Lower Amoor and North China, and occasionally to Formosa. This 
species may be easily distinguished from its arctic ally by having the 
yellow at the tip of the tail replaced by red, and by having no “ wax ” 
tips to the secondaries, the white tips on their outside webs being replaced 
by red. A still nearer ally is the American Waxwing or Cedar-bird, 
A. cedrorum, which is said to inhabit the whole of North America as far 
north as lat. 52°, extending southwards to Guatemala, Jamaica, and Cuba 
in winter. This bird is somewhat less than the northern species, and like 
it has the “wax” tips to the secondaries and the yellow tips to the tail, 
but is without the white on the wing. The Cedar-bird has been erroneously 
included in the British list, in several cases skins of this species having 
been substituted by dishonest bird-stuffers for specimens of the Waxwing 
shot in this country. 
I was fortunate enough to meet with a small party of Waxwings as 
IT was walking down the Glossop Road to business into Sheffield on 
the morning of the 29th of December, 1866. My attention was arrested 
by three or four birds which flew across the road and alighted in a 
Jaburnum tree in Miss Ray’s garden. I imagined from their flight that. 
they must be Starlings; but fancying that they showed white marks on the 
