APPENDIX: NO. LI. SI 
LI. 
On tHE NEst anp Ecos oF THE WAXWING 
(Boueycizr4 GARRULA, TEMM.). 
[* Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ March 24, 1857, pp. 55, 56°. ] 
Tue Waxwing, as observed in Lapland, makes a good-sized and 
substantial nest, but without much indication of advanced art. It is 
of some depth, and regularly shaped, though built of rather intract- 
able materials. As in those of many other birds in the Arctic 
forests. the main substance is of the kind of lichen commonly 
called tree-hair, which hangs so abundantly from the branches of 
almost every tree. This lichen somewhat resembles a mass of delicate 
rootlets, or perhaps may be compared to coarse brown wool; but 
some of it is whitish, and in one nest there was a little of this mixed 
with the ordinary brown or black. This main substance of the nest 
is strengthened below by a platform of dead twigs, and higher up 
towards the interior by a greater or less amount of flowering stalks 
of grass, and occasionally pieces of equisetum. It is also interspersed 
with a little rein-deer lichen, perhaps a sprig or two of green moss, 
and even some pieces of willow cotton. There may also be observed 
a little of the very fine silvery-looking fibre of grass leaves which 
probably have been reduced to that condition by long soaking in 
water. In one of the nests examined there were several pen-feathers 
of small birds as an apology for a lining. Of other nests which are 
to be found in the same forest, it most resembles, but is considerably 
less than, that of the Siberian Jay, which however is less securely 
put together, but has many more feathers and soft materials for a 
lining. 
The nest of the Waxwing is built on the branch of a tree, not near 
the bole, and rather, as one of the observers has said, standing up 
from the branch like a Fieldfare’s or other Thrush’s nest, than 
supported by twigs touching it at the sides, as the nests of many birds 
are supported. Of six nests, four were in small Spruces, one in a 
good-sized Scotch fir, and one in a Birch—all placed at a height of 
from 6 to 12 feet above the ground. The tree in several instances 
was unhealthy, thin and scraggy in its branches, to which there hung 
a good deal of hair lichen; and the nest seems generally much 
exposed, though from its resemblance to the lichen hanging near, it 
might escape the eye. The nests found were in parts of the forest 
considerably open, once or twice on the side of low hills, near a river, 
or with an undergrowth of dwarf swamp-loving shrubs. But at 
1 (This paper was illustrated by a plate (Aves, pl. exxii.) drawn by Mr. J. Jennens, 
representing very poorly two eggs, which were sold to Sir W, Milner at 
Mr. Stevens's, 12 May, 1857 (O. W. § 812), and a nest afterwards given to the 
British Museum (O. W. § 810). A specimen of the egg, taken 8 July, 1856, and 
given to the same Museum by Mr. Wolley (one of three mentioned O. W. i. p. 217, 
note), is either omitted from or else wrongly entered in the ‘Catalogue of Eggs,’ 
vol. iv. pp. 256, 257).— Ep. } 
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