Mcttcmarn of 



733 



but generally soon die in confinement. The! 

 food consists chiefly of juicy fruits, on whicl 

 they fatten, but to the great detriment of th 

 orchard, where they commit extensive ra 

 vages. When fruits are scarce they seize upon 

 insects, catching them dexterously in th 

 same manner as their distant relatives th 

 fly-catchers. No name could be more in 

 appropriate for these birds than that o 

 chatterers, as there are few less noisy, ana 

 they might even be called mute with much 

 better reason. They build in trees, and lay 

 twice in a year, about five eggs." 



The BOHEMIAN WAXWING. (Bombycilla 

 I garrula.) "Whence," exclaims C. Bonaparte 

 " does the Bohemian Waxwing come at the 

 long and irregular periods of its migrations 

 Whither does it retire to pass its existence 

 and give birth to its progeny ? These are 

 circumstances involved in darkness, and 

 which it has not been given to any naturalist 

 to ascertain. It has been stated, and with 

 much appearance of probability, that these 

 birds retire during summer within the arctic 

 circle : but the fact is otherwise, naturalists 

 who have explored these regions asserting 

 that they are rarer and more accidental there 

 than in temperate climates. It seems pro- 

 bable that their chief place of abode is in 

 the oriental parts of the old continent, and, 

 U we may hazard an opinion, we should not 

 be surprised if the extensive and elevated 

 table land of Central Asia was found to be 

 their principal rendezvous, whence, like the 

 lartars in former times, they make their 

 irregular excursions." 



It seems that in Northern Russia, and the 

 extreme north of Norway, they are seen in 

 great numbers every winter ; and, notwith- 

 standing they at times invade peculiar dis- 

 tricts m vast numbers, so remarkable was 

 their appearance in former times considered, 

 that they have alarmed whole regions, and 

 been looked upon as the precursors of war, 

 pestilence, and other public calamities. " In 

 15o2, Gesner informs us, they appeared along 

 the Rhine, near Mentz in Germany, in such 

 numbers as to obscure the sun. They have, 

 however, of late years, in Italy and Germany 

 and m France especially, at all times, been 

 extremely rare, being seen only in small 

 companies or singly, appearing as if they 

 had strayed from their way. In England, 

 the Bohemian Waxwing has always been 

 a rare visitant, coming only at long and un- 

 certain intervals. In the winter of 1810 large 

 flocks were dispersed through various parts 

 of that kingdom, from which period we do 

 not find it recorded by English writers till 

 the month of February, 1822, when a few 

 came under Mr. Selby's inspection, and 

 several were again observed during the se- 

 vere storm m the winter of 1823. Upon the 

 continent, its returns are subject to similar 

 uncertainty. In M. Necker's very interesting 

 memoir lately published on the Birds of 

 Geneva, we read, that from the beginning of 

 his century only two considerable flights 

 have been observed in that canton, one in 

 January, 1807, and the other in January, 

 L814, when they were very numerous, and 

 spent the winter there, all departing in 



March. In 1807 they were dispersed over a 

 great portion of western Europe, and were 

 seen near Edinburgh in the first days of thai 

 year." 



WEASELS. A genus of digitigrade Car- 

 nivora, belonging to the Mustelidce family, 

 many of which are described in this volume 

 under their several well-known names, 

 MARTEN, ERMINE, &c. We shall therefore 

 now only give the COMMON WEASEL (Mus- 

 tela vulgaris), a species which inhabits many 

 countries of Europe, and, in much greater 

 abundance, North America. In Mr. Bell's 

 excellent work on the British Quadrupeds, 

 he makes the following accurate remarks on 

 the resemblance that exists between the 

 Weasel and the Stoat : " The Stoat is brown 

 above, dirty white beneath ; the tail always 

 black at the tip, longer and more bushy than 

 that of the Weasel, and the former animal 

 is twice as large as its elegant little congener. 

 The Weasel, on the other hand, is red above, 

 pure white beneath ; the tail red and uni- 

 form. Their habits also, though generally 

 similar, are, in many of their details, con- 

 siderably distinct, and we are fully borne 

 out by observation in saying that the ac- 

 cusations against the Weasel, of the mischief 

 which he is said to perpetrate in the farm- 

 yard and the hen-roost, as well as amongst 

 game of every description on hares and 

 rabbits, no less than on the feathered tribes 

 are principally due u> the Stoat. It is 

 not meant to be asserted that the Weasel 

 will not, when driven by hunger, boldly 

 attack the stock of the poultry-yard, or oc- 

 casionally make free with a young rabbit or 

 a sleeping partridge ; but that its usual prey 

 is of a much more ignoble character is proved 

 iy daily observation. Mice of every descri p- 

 iion, the field and the water-vole, rats, moles, 

 and small birds, are their ordinary food ; 

 and from the report of unprejudiced ob- 

 servers, it would appear that this pretty ani- 

 mal ought rather to be fostered as a destroyer 



UWOM WEASEL. (MU3TKLA VULQARI8.) 



f vermin, than extirpated as a noxious de- 

 iredator. Above all, it should not be mo- 

 ested in barns, ricks, or granaries, in which 

 ituations it is of great service in destroying 

 he colonies of mice which infest them. 

 Those only who have witnessed the multi- 

 udmous numbers in which these little pests 

 re found, in wheat-ricks especially, and 

 ave seen the manner in which the interior 

 sometimes drilled, as it were, in every di- 

 iction by their runs, can at all appreciate 

 the amount of their depredations ; and surely 

 the occasional abduction of a chicken or a 

 duckling, supposing it to be much more fre- 

 quently chargeable against the Weasel than 



