CHAP. xnr. 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 



'45 



I had once kept a pair in a cage for some months. I was 

 delighted to hear it once more resounding from the lofty 

 spruce and larch trees in the forest. We succeeded in 

 shooting one pair only ; nor were they in very good plumage, 

 having very few and small wax appendages on the second- 

 aries. The eggs in the female were very large, and the 

 testicles of the male very fully developed. It is therefore 

 probable that they were on the point of building, if they had 

 not already begun. As the yellow on the primaries was 

 1-shaped and not V-shaped, I set him down to be a young bird. 

 The male differed from the female in this pair in the follow- 

 ing particulars. It was a larger bird, with longer wings and 

 tail, and slightly larger crest. The black on the throat was 



in Broomhall Park. Some months 

 afterwards a German bird-fancier 

 brought a number of singing-birds 

 for sale. Among these were advertised 

 as great curiosities a pair of " Russian 

 nightingales." These birds turned out 

 to be waxwings, which I bought and 

 kept in a cage for some months. They 

 were most voracious eaters, and the 

 cage required cleaning several times 

 a day. They were very active and 

 rustless — especially after the gas was 

 lighted in the evening — and even when 

 perched at rest seemed to be continually 

 moving their heads about, as razorbills 

 are in the habit of doing. If alarmed 

 they would stretch out their necks 

 to almost double the usual length. 

 They were remarkably silent birds. 

 The only note I heard was a sort of 

 cir-ir-ir-re, very similar to a well- 

 known note of the blue tit. Occasion- 



ally this succession of notes was repeated 

 so rapidly as to form a trill like the 

 song of the lesser redpole. The sexes 

 of the waxwing may be best distin- 

 guished by the markings on the wings. 

 In the female the white mark at the 

 end of the primary quill feathers is 

 confined to the outside web, and re- 

 sembles the letter I, and is only slightly 

 suffused with yellow. The wax-like 

 appendages to the secondaries are 

 comparatively small. In the male a 

 similar white mark is continued at 

 the end of the inner web, making the 

 mark resemble the letter V. This mark 

 is generally suffused with deep yellow, 

 and the wax-like appendages are twice 

 the size of those of the female. It 

 must be borne in mind, however, that 

 the male bears the plumage of the 

 female until after the second autumn 

 moult. 



