BIRDS OF NEW YORK 355 



Bombycilla garrula (Linnaeus) 

 Bohemian Waxwing 



Plate 89 



Lanius garrulus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:95 

 Bombycilla garrula DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 43, fig. 57 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 19 10. p. 295. No. 618 

 bombycilla, from Gr. and Lat., bombyx, silk worm, silk, hence little silky one; 

 garrula, Lat., garrulous, talkative 



Description. In general resembling the Cedar waxwing but larger. 

 The abdomen gray instead of yellow; the forehead and under tail coverts 

 chestnut rufous; the secondaries tipped with white, the primaries tipped 

 with yellow on the outer web, these white and yellow tips on the wing being 

 very conspicuous when the bird is at a considerable distance. 



Length 8-9 inches; wing 4.6; tail 2.6. 



Distribution. The Bohemian waxwing is holarctic in distribution 



inhabiting the colder portions of the northern hemisphere, in America 



breeding far northward and in the high mountains of the west, straggling 



irregularly southward in winter as far as the northern United States. 



In New York it is an irregular winter visitant. There are records from 



Long Island by Giraud, in 1830 and 1832; from Albany in 1835 by DeKay; 



Long Island, 1838, by Audubon; a specimen from Crow hill, 1851, is in 



the collection of the Long Island Historical Society; from Cold Spring in 



1870 by Mearns; from Mexico January 3, 1876, and February 2, 1880, by 



Ruthven Dean; from Penn Yan, 1880, by James Flahive; from Lockport, 



February 22, 1882, by Davison; from Utica several seasons prior to 1886 



by Ralph and Bagg; North Haven April 18, 1889, by Dutcher; in Madison 



county, February 4, 1896, by Embody; Syracuse February 10, 1899, by 



Johonnot; Saratoga, February 24 and March 2, 1891, by S. R. Ingersoll; 



and from Waterford February 24, 1904, by Will Richard. Beside these 



records of specimens, numerous accounts have been sent to me of Bohemian 



waxwings appearing in various localities in the State, all of them in the 



winter months, the latest date being the one by Dutcher, April 18th. It 



is probable that a few of this species may occur in the State nearly every 

 23 



