BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 109 



Professor Baird, in his account of this species, at page 317 of 

 his work on the Birds of North America, mentions that it is " seen 

 in the United States only in severe winters, except along the great 

 lakes;" but in an appendix to the same work (page 923), the 

 following note occurs: " Mr Drexler saw ' millions' of this species 

 while in the winter camp of the south pass waggon road party, at 

 the head of Powder River, Nebraska. Every tree for miles was 

 filled with them, the flock rivalling that of the wild pigeon in its' 

 size." Such an invasion of our own woods might help to relieve 

 the cacoethes carpendi of British collectors. 



OBS. I was lately informed by Mr Thomas Struthers of Lark- 

 hall, that some years ago, when voyaging from Canada to this 

 country, a cedar bird (Bombycilla Carolinensis) flew on board the 

 vessel shortly after it had left the Canadian coast, and continued 

 to abide in the ship, from which it made occasional sallies when the 

 weather permitted, until nearing the coast of Ireland. The bird 

 had become a well-known favourite with the crew and passengers, 

 and usually perched in the rigging or the ornamental work of the 

 figure-head. On sighting Ireland, however, and when about 

 fifteen or twenty miles from land, an outward bound vessel at- 

 tracted the little feathered passenger as it sped past under a press 

 of canvas, and pluming his crest with eager attention, he quitted 

 the ship my friend was in, with an evident mistrust of the recep- 

 tion he would meet with on British soil, and boarded the stranger, 

 filled with a desire no doubt to return to his former haunts in the 

 woods of America. 



While this note was passing through the press, I have, by a 

 singular coincidence, been informed by Captain H. W. Feilden, of 

 the 4th King's Own Royal Regiment, that his father, Sir William 

 Feilden of Feniscowles, had in his collection a specimen of 

 this bird which was shot at Cambo, in Fifeshire, in 1841. Sir 

 William, in a recent letter, describes the bird as having been 

 "like a waxwinged chatterer, only less than half the size;" and 

 Captain Feilden, in accounting for its appearance in the east of 

 Scotland, suggests that it may have come to this country via 

 Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes, and Heligoland, and not by 

 ship, or it would probably have been shot in Ireland or the 

 west coast of Scotland. 



