266 



THE BOHEMIAN WAX-WING, OR WAXEN CHATTERER. 



gardens round by thousands, in quest of the berries of a tree, which I believe is the mountain 

 ash, having been driven south, as I suppose, either on account of the cold or in search of 

 food. Some of the nocks contained several thousands, but are now much diminished in num- 

 bers, on account of some having gone southwards, and others been killed. They make a great 

 noise when sitting together, which they do in great numbers, making a tree look quite black 

 with them. On one occasion I killed twenty at one shot, at another eighteen, and at another 

 seventeen. One of these birds I shot had the wax at the tip of the tail, as well as on the 

 wings." This curious divergence from the usual formation has been noticed in the cedar bird 

 (an American species of the same genus), by Wilson, as will be mentioned in the account of 

 that bird. Perhaps the waxen appendage of the tail may rather be termed a full development 

 of the original idea, than a divergence from the usual form. 



BOHEMIAN WAX-WING, OH WAXEN CHATTERER. Ampells garrutus. 



The long, flat, scarlet appendages to the wings, and, as we have seen, to the tail also, are 

 usually confined to the secondaries and tertiaries, at whose extremities they dangle as if they 

 had been formed separately, and fastened to the feathers as an after-thought. Indeed, they so 

 precisely resemble red sealing-wax, that any one on seeing the bird for the first time would 

 probably suppose that a trick had been played upon him by some one who desired to tax his 

 credulity to a very great extent. The full number of these appendages is eight, four on the 

 secondaries and the same number on the tertiaries, but they vary according to the age of the 

 bird, the secondaries keeping their full complement, and the tertiaries having from one to 

 four, according to age and development. None of the wax-like appendages are developed 

 until the second year. 



Although the migratory habits of this bird are well known, and many of the localities 

 which it frequents have been recorded by various writers, no one seems to have any certain 

 information as to its true home, or the country wherein it breeds, although it is so numerous 

 a species in its own locality that its hiding-places could hardly have escaped notice had they 

 occurred within the ordinary limits of scientific observation. 



