THE WAXWING 157 



tooth-like projections of white. (For the intermediate stages in this development 

 see p. 164.) The tail is dark grey shading into a penultimate bar of black, and 

 terminating in a broad bar of light sulphur-yellow ; incipient wax tips are some- 

 times present (see p. 164). The under tail-coverts are chestnut. The breast and 

 flanks are lavender-grey, the throat black, relieved by a short malar stripe of 

 white. 



Immature birds are of a pale sepia, tinged grey above, the yellow markings 

 on the wings much paler, and the white only partly developed (p. 164). 

 There is a white superciliary stripe and a white patch behind the eye, but no 

 white malar stripe ; under parts pale sepia. The juvenile plumage is much duller 

 than the adults ; there is only a small black patch on the throat. The under parts 

 are mottled and striped, and irides hazel, whereas in the adult they are red. Wax 

 tips as in adult, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. This species seems to vary considerably in numbers in 

 any particular district from year to year, but is now known to breed with more or 

 less regularity from the north of Scandinavia to about lat. 65 in Sweden, also in 

 Russia, Lapland, in Finland south to the Kuopio district, and in the Olonetz and 

 Archangel governments of Russia. It is resident in Siberia and Alaska, and has 

 recently been met with breeding in the Rocky Mountains to about lat. 51 (Macoun, 

 Catalogue of Canadian Birds, 2nd ed., p. 588). Outside its breeding area it is an 

 erratic southern migrant during the winter months, sometimes in great numbers, 

 and has occurred at irregular intervals in the greater part of Europe, south to the 

 Mediterranean region, but has not been recorded from the Iberian peninsula or 

 South Italy. Asiatic birds winter in Japan and North China, while North 

 American birds have been recorded in winter from North California and occasion- 

 ally from Arizona. [F. c. E. J.] 



3. Migration. An irregular visitor on migration from Northern Europe, 

 occurring chiefly in the winter months, but sometimes as early as August and on the 

 spring passage as late as May. The records of its occurrences are well distributed 

 over the whole of the British Isles, but the majority are for the more northerly 

 and easterly districts (cf. Saunders, Man. Brit. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 155 ; Ussher and 

 Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 45 ; Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 146 ; Forrest, 

 Fauna N. Wales, 1907, p. 130 ; and Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 123). As a rule 

 the waxwing is a rarity in the British Isles, but in some seasons very considerable 

 immigrations have occurred. These ' visits depend on the severity of the weather 

 on the Continent, but it does not follow that the same winter will be rigorous in 



