WAXWING. 155 



Bawdsey, in Suffolk, some years prior to the date of 

 their publication (1825). In 1829, according to the 

 Messrs. Paget, of Yarmouth, they were very plentiful 

 in that neighbourhood, and several were obtained in 

 the winters of 1847 and 1848, in the latter year more 

 especially, but in the following winter of 1849-50, 

 perhaps the largest number ever known in this country 

 were observed along the entire eastern coast of England 

 and many parts of Scotland. Upwards of thirty suc- 

 cessive notices, from various places, of specimens 

 obtained, appeared at that time in the " Zoologist," 

 and though even these conveyed but a very small idea of 

 the numbers that actually visited us, they amounted to 

 five hundred and eighty-six birds killed. A very large 

 proportion of these were procured in the month of 

 January, when in Norfolk alone twenty-two specimens 

 were obtained and sent into Norwich for preservation. 

 In a summary of the notes supplied to his journal, on 

 this most interesting subject, Mr. Newman, in his pre- 

 face to the " Zoologist" for 1850, describes the direction 

 taken by these nights as from " east to west, appear- 

 ing simultaneously along a great tract of the Eastern 

 Counties, and proceeding directly inland ;" he also adds 

 that, " during January, March, and April, the ther- 

 mometer was unusually low, the wind boisterous, and 

 chiefly from the north and east." During the winters of 

 1851, 52, and 53, only a few stragglers appeared in 

 any one year, and singularly enough in 1854-55, when 

 the severity of the weather brought over an unusual 

 number of rare winter visitants, not a single waxwing 

 appeared amongst them. Again, from 1856 to 1862, I 

 am aware of only a chance bird or two having been 

 observed in this county, in spite of the intense cold ex- 

 perienced during that period in two successive winters ; 

 and their latest arrival in any quantity occurred in Nov*> 

 1863, when some fourteen or fifteen specimens were 

 x2 



