132 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



the Tits' eggs : it is almost white, with a few brick- 

 dust spots, mostly on the broader end. 



This bird finishes the Tits : they are, as a whole, 

 a very lively, amusing race, constantly bringing 

 themselves to our notice by their bright and varied 

 plumage and by their lively manners, on which 

 account, as well as for their material services in the 

 destruction of insects, they might well be forgiven a 

 few occasional irregularities in the garden and 

 orchard, in the purloining of buds : perhaps, after 

 all, they only save the gardener a little trouble in 

 the way of " thinning out." 



Family AMPELIDJE. 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING, Bombycilla garrula. I in- 

 clude the Bohemian Waxwing, or "Waxen Chat- 

 terer," as it is, perhaps, more properly called (being 

 quite as uncommon in Bohemia as in England), in 

 the list of Somersetshire birds, on the authority of 

 the following notice in the 'Zoologist' for 1867 

 (Second Series, p. 633) : 



"Bohemian Waxwing in Somersetshire. Mr. Wheeler, 

 taxidermist, of 15, St. Augustine's Parade, has now in his 

 hands, for preservation, a very fine specimen of the Bohemian 

 Waxwing. It was shot at Batcombe Court, Somerset." 



This notice was quoted in the 'Zoologist' from 

 the * Field' newspaper of January 12, 1867, and has 



