268 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



That beautiful bird, the waxwing, wrongly called 

 the Bohemian chatterer, for it is really a very quiet 

 creature, visits us from time to time ; some have 

 been shot recently. It would not interest my readers 

 to give the dry details of their visits as they have 

 occurred, so I leave them out of the question. This 

 bird is a very remarkable one, with its fine crest and 

 the red wax-like tips to the tail and some of the wing 

 feathers; but although they are such lovely crea- 

 tures, a few years ago they caused no little uneasi- 

 ness in places they visited : in some way or other 

 they got to be associated with coming trouble of a 

 vague nature. 



Red berries are sure to attract these birds, partic- 

 ularly those of the wild-rose and mountain -ash. As 

 the waxwing is a voracious feeder, it is far more con- 

 cerned about its stomach than its safety, and suffers 

 accordingly. I have lately seen an account of one 

 that allowed a miserable creature to get so close to 

 it that when he fired he almost blew it to pieces. 

 Our shores are certainly not hospitable ones for 

 wanderers. 



The nutcracker, that curiously spotted bird that 

 looks like a jackdaw and woodpecker blended into 



