176 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



frontal band of black, and margined behind \vith a narrow line 

 of white ; ear coverts and cheeks brown, with a white spot on 

 the fore part of the latter ; a narrow moustachial line of black ; 

 urider-parts white, tinged with yellow, which becomes more 

 marked on the vent ; the throat, breast, and flanks brown, 

 streaked with pale fulvous edges to the feathers. 



Range in Great Britain. An irregular visitant in autumn and 

 winter, sometimes coming in large numbers, though it occurs 

 nearly every year. The years when nreat invasions have 

 taken place in this country have been recorded as follows : 

 1830-31, 1834-35, 1849-50, 1866-67, an d J 872-73; but the 

 earliest notice of the species in England dates back to 1681, 

 when an account of its occurrence near York was published in 

 the " Philosophical Transactions." The Wax- wing has occurred 

 in nearly every part of England and Scotland, but the Irish 

 records are fewer. As might be expected, the bulk of the 

 S[ ec'mens are obtained in our eastern counties, where, in 

 some of the years above-mentioned, large numbers have been 

 shot. During the migration of the winter of 1872 many were 

 noticed in the neighbourhood of the north of London. 



Range outside the British Islands. -The Wax-wing is a circum- 

 polar bird, and is an inhabitant of high northern latitudes in 

 Europe, Asia, and North America. In the temperate portions 

 of the latter continent its place is taken by an allied species, 

 the Cedar-bird (Ampelis cedroruni), which is smaller, and is 

 distinguished by its white under tail-coverts and olive-yellow 

 flanks. 



The Wax-wing is found in winter in most of the countries of 

 Europe, though of irregular occurrence ; it has not yet been 

 found in the Pyrenees or the Spanish peninsula, but has been 

 known to reach the south of France, and the northern provinces 

 of Italy, as well as of Turkey. At the same time of year it visits 

 Central Asia, North China, and the northern island of Japan. 

 Its breeding quarters are the pine regions in the north of the 

 Old and New Worlds, about the line of the Arctic Circle. It 

 has been recorded as nesting in North-eastern Norway, in Lap- 

 land, in Finland, and Mr. Seebohm says that he met with it 

 during the breeding season in the valleys of the Petchora and 

 the Yenesei, AHhough the species occurs in the interior of 



