220 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



if the colours are not to be seen, you could 

 easily mistake waxwings for starlings ; but 

 their habits are very different, for they hardly 

 ever come to the ground, preferring to keep to 

 the trees, where they feed on any berries they 

 can get, and they are not at all noisy birds, 

 though they often utter their soft gentle note. 

 They have got their name of waxwings from 

 the curious red spot on the wing, which is 

 formed by little horny tips to the feathers in 

 that part, just like tiny drops of red sealing- 

 wax ; some extra fine birds may even have 

 waxy tips to their tails as well. No one 

 knows where these pretty birds will turn up ; 

 their summer home is in the Arctic forests all 

 round the world, but they cannot be absolutely 

 depended on to nest in the same district, and 

 in winter they stray far and wide. Some- 

 times not one is seen here for years, then 

 flocks of hundreds may be found ; in Russia 

 they are commoner than in most places, and 

 many are caught for food, while others are 

 sent away as cage -birds, for they are very 

 much admired by bird-fanciers, and soon settle 

 down to life in a cage. Indeed, they are rather 

 too contented, for they are very much inclined 



