WAXWING. 533 



p. 1294) England must be regarded with much suspicion. 

 In America too its breeding-places have at last been dis- 

 covered, a nest with one egg having been found in 1861 by 

 Kennicott on the Yukon, and Mr. MacFarlane having met 

 with the like success on the Anderson River. 



The eggs, from five to six or occasionally seven in number, 

 are very variable both in size and colour. They measure 

 from 1-11 to -82 by from -73 to -64 in., while a dwarf 

 specimen is only -64 by -52 in. Yet they bear a family 

 likeness to each other, and the mutual resemblance of those 

 laid in the same nest is almost always strong. The gi-ound 

 is most generally of a delicate sea-green, sometimes fading 

 to french-white, but very often of a more or less pale olive, 

 and occasionally of a dull purplish-grey. On this are 

 almost always bold blotches, spots and specks of deep 

 brownish-black, though sometimes the edges are blurred. 

 Beneath these stronger markings there is nearly always a 

 series of blotches or streaks of greyish-lilac, and among 

 them well-defined spots or specks of yellowish-brown are 

 interspersed. In some eggs the darkest markings are quite 

 wanting, in others the ground is of a deep olive colour. 



In the adult male the bill is black, the edges at the base 

 light brown : the irides dark red : the forehead deep bay pass- 

 ing into light brocoli-brown on the top of the head, whence 

 springs the fine crest ; a black band runs from the nostrils 

 and base of the upper mandible, over the lore, round the 

 eye, and backward to the occiput underneath the crest ; ear- 

 coverts, nape and sides of the neck light brocoli-brown, 

 becoming darker on the scapulars, small wing-coverts and 

 back, and passing into brownish-grey on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts ; the coverts of the primaries black, tipped with 

 white, forming a conspicuous bar ; primaries brownish-black, 

 with an elongated patch of white or yellow at the tip of the 

 outer web of more or fewer of them, except the first, which 

 patch in fine specimens extends along the tip of the inner 

 web ; the secondaries and tertials greyish-black, the former 

 tipped with pure white on the outer web — the shafts of four 

 or more of them generally terminating in a small, nail-like. 



