THE WAX-WINGS. 177 



Alaska, apparently somewhat plentifully, only once has its nt'st 

 been found in the territory ; this was by Kennicott, near Fort 

 Yukon, in July, 1861. The species must surely nest elsewhere 

 in the Arctic portions of North America, as it has been ob- 

 served on the Anderson river during the breeding-time ; but 

 at present the Alaskan record is the only one for the whole of 

 North America. 



Habits. Although such a common bird in collections, very 

 little has been recorded of the habits of the Wax-wing, and even 

 those naturalists who go in search of the nest do not always 

 succeed in finding it, for both in summer and winter the bird 

 appears to be very erratic in its choice of a home, being plentiful 

 in some years in certain districts and then not appearing again in 

 the neighbourhood for a long time. In its motions the Wax- 

 wing is a very active bird, and is a beautiful creature in life, the 

 crested head and the yellow bands on the wings and tail 

 rendering it very conspicuous. The food consists of insects 

 during the summer, varied with a few berries, but in the 

 autumn and winter the bird subsists on berries of such plants 

 as privet, white-thorn, guelder-rose and dog-rose ; at this time 

 of year they become very fat, and are sold in large numbers 

 for food in the Russian markets, being occasionally sent over to 

 London. 



Mr. Seebohm says that a pair of birds which he kept in con- 

 finement were most voracious eaters, and their cage required 

 cleaning several times a day. They were very active and rest- 

 less, and even when perched at rest seemed to be continually 

 moving their heads. If alarmed they would stretch out their 

 necks to almost double the usual length. They were remark- 

 ably silent birds, the only note heard by him being a "eir-ir-ir- 

 ir-re" very similar to a well known note of the Blue Tit. 

 Occasionally this succession of notes was repeated so rapidly 

 as to form a trill like the song of the Redpoll. 



Nest. According to Mr. Seebohm, the nest is a large and 

 very compact structure, the outside diameter of one in his posses- 

 sion being seven inches and the inside four inches; it is about 

 four inches high outside, and nearly two inches deep. The foun- 

 dation is made of twigs of spruce-fir and reindeer-moss. The 

 nest itself is composed of feathers and black hair-lichen, inter- 



