WAX WING. 5 



, I had the curiosity to step across the road to get a nearer view of 

 them. The tree on which they alighted was only a few yards from the 

 road, and I watched them over the wall for some time. I recognized them 

 at once by their crests. The yellow markings on the wings and tail were 

 very conspicuous, and I fancied I could distinguish the red wax-like 

 appendages. They were very active, putting themselves in all sorts-of -posi- 

 tions, and did not seem at all disturbed by my scrutiny ; and when at las 

 they flew away, and I turned round to continue my walk, I found that 

 quite a small crowd had collected behind me, one of whom (probably a 

 Sheffield grinder, and consequently well up in pigeons, dogs, and other 

 branches of sporting zoology) volunteered the information that they were 

 French Starlings. I sent a short notice of the appearance of these illus- 

 trious strangers in our town to one of the local papers ; and the following 

 day more than one gentleman assured me that birds agreeing with my 

 description had been seen in Broomhall Park, and on the 31st two speci- 

 mens were shot there by the gardener of Mr. Willis Dixon ; so that it is 

 probable that the flock continued in the neighbourhood for some days. A 

 few months afterwards I bought a pair of these birds and kept them in a 

 cage for some time. They were most voracious eaters, and the cage 

 required cleaning several times a day. They were very active and restless, 

 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 remarkably silent birds; the only note I 

 heard was a cir-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 Redpole. The Waxwing is almost omni- 

 vorous. Mr. Gunn, of Norwich, through whose hands more than a hundred 

 birds passed in the winter of 1866-67, found their food to consist of the 

 berries of the guelder-rose, dog-rose, whitethorn, and privet ; those of 

 the dog-rose, being too large for one mouthful, were picked to pieces. 

 Collett, who dissected birds shot at their breeding-grounds in Finmark in 

 July, found the stomachs filled almost exclusively with entire or dismem- 

 bered bodies of a species of crane-fly allied to our " Tommy long-legs." 

 ne of the males had some juniper-berries in his gullet. Other ornitholo- 



ists have found various berries and insects in the stomachs of these birds; 

 and in confinement they feed greedily on bread and carrots. 



The Waxwing is generally very fat in winter, and is highly esteemed as 

 article of food. Hundreds are sold in the frozen market of St. Peters- 



urg at three-halfpence each. 



Although this bird has been well known to ornithologists for some 

 centuries, its breeding- grounds were only discovered as recently as 1856. 

 Before that date various legendary stories of its breeding in holes of trees 

 and amongst rocks were recorded ; and, incredible as it may seem, were 



