WANDERING WAXWING. 33 



pronounced it the male garrulus bohemicus, or German silk-tail, 

 from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries at 

 the ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with 

 any propriety, be called an English bird : and yet I see, by Ray's 

 Philosoph. Letters, that great flocks of them, feeding on haws, 

 appeared in this kingdom in the winter of 1685.* 



The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total 

 failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many 

 of the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in the 

 spring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender and 

 curious trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and common. 



* This truly beautiful bird, the wandering waxwing (bombycilla vagans), is by no means so 

 rare a straggler to this country as it has generally been described, a few being shot every winter 

 in the eastern counties. I have repeatedly met with it, in Surrey, in small country collections of 

 stuffed birds ; and there are few preservers of animals in these parts, but have once or twice 

 been entrusted with a recent specimen of it. I have myself, at different times, seen several. In- 

 stances are upon record of their appearing some winters inconsiderable flocks, which in general 

 are by no means shy, or difficult of approach, so that their manners may be observed with faci- 

 lity. Mr. Audubon inforths me that he lately saw a large flock near Edinburgh. We learn from 

 Bewick that great numbers were taken in Northumberland in the years 17S9 and 1/90, and the 

 Ftev. Perceval Hunter mentions a flock of them having appeared in Kent in 1828. They are very 

 gregarious, and strong and swift upon the wing ; and, when they alight, often crowd so closely 

 together that many have been brought down at a single discharge. Whenever one settles on a 

 tree or bush where there are berries, it calls its companions with a sort of " peep ;" and when 

 they first take wing, all of them utter a note resembling "zi, zi, zi." It is a bird of rather pecu- 

 liar make, the body being large, and heavy (in proportion to the head and neck), and very long, as 

 is also the tibia bone of the leg, as compared to the tarsus. It weighs rather more than two 

 ounces. The feet are formed for perching upon twigs, but are ill adapted for progressive move- 

 ment, either on the ground (where they very rarely descend) or from bough to bough. Like its 

 transatlantic congener, the American waxwing (B. Americana), or "cedar-bird" of Wilson's Or- 

 nithology, it is rather a gluttonous species, and has been known to devour in a single day, in 

 confinement, a quantity of food equal to its own weight. It principally subsists on berries of 

 various kinds, and is particularly fond of those of the mountain-ash ; the specimens I have 

 examined had been feeding on haws. They prey also like other dentirostral birds upon insects, 

 and in times of necessity haye been seen to eat the buds and sprouts of various trees. In con- 

 finement (contrary to what is usually stated) they are very hardy, requiring but little care, and 

 will live for a considerable number of years, feeding on whatever is given to them, and thriving 

 apparently on the coarsest food ; but they are very lazy and inactive in the cage, and apt to be- 

 come overloaded with fat. According to Bechstein, whose description of them in a captive state 

 is here condensed, they drink often, and are fond of sprinkling themselves with water, but 

 are careful not to wet their plumage much. They have rather a pleasing, but low and whistling 

 sort of song, which in confinement is uttered at least ten months in the year, moving the crest 

 up and down while singing, but scarcely moving the throat. They are impatient of warmth, 

 which indicates the summer habitat to be in very elevated districts, or far to the north ; but their 

 place and manner of nidification are as yet unknown. 



I have observed that birds of this species vary much in richness of plumage, and that some of 

 the older individuals have the tips of all the quill-feathers beautifully edged with yellowish white. 

 Such specimens have generally the yellow markings of the wings and tail unusually bright, and 

 the wax-like appendages to the wings larger and of a more intense colour, these, however, are 

 not strictly speaking appendages, but modifications of the substance of the barb of the feather. Of 

 many dozens of these birds that I have seen, 1 have met with only two marked as above specified, 

 both of them males, one of which is now in my possession; and I have another male specimen, * 

 single feather of which (the second primary) in one wing, is thus edged at the tip. When all are 

 so the beauty of the bird is very considerably enhanced, ED. 



D 



