76 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



AMPELID.E. CHATTEEEES. 



This family of the Dentirostral group, to which we now 

 advance, is one of which but a single species, the Bohemian 

 Waxwing, can be considered British, and this is but an 

 occasional visitor to our shores. Some of the forms com- 

 posing the family are very splendid and curious ; they live 

 chiefly on soft berries and small fruits. The most charac- 

 teristic or typical species inhabit the deepest and most 

 secluded forests of Tropical America. 



THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING. Bombycilla garrula. This 

 bird derives its name from the peculiar formation of the 

 secondary feathers of the wing, which have the shafts pro- 

 longed, and furnished with a horny appendage like a small 

 flattened oval bead of red sealing-wax, whence its name of 

 the Waxwing. 



The eggs of this bird, which formed one of the greatest 

 desiderata in the collections of naturalists, have been 

 made known to the public in this country during the pre- 

 sent month (May 1857), we believe for the first time, by 

 John Wolley, Jun., Esq., who forwarded them from Lap- 

 land. Skins of both sexes, in the plumage of the breeding 



