86 NATURAL HISTORIC. 



" It would appear that the range of this species extends to all parts of the Australian continent, 

 since I have received specimens from every locality yet explored. I found it breeding in the 

 Lower Namoi, which proves that the interior of the country is inhabited by it as well as those 

 portions between the ranges and the coast." 



Mr. White, of the Reed Beds, near Adelaide, says : " This little bird is sometimes rather 

 numerous here. It appears to be wholly frtigivorous, for all of those I have dissected had fruit 

 in them. It has no regular stomach, not even an enlargement of the intestine, which averages about 

 five inches and a half in length, and through which the food passes whole. It arrives at Adelaide 

 about February, and stays but a short time. I have met with it very far north." 



Its beautiful purse-like nest is composed of the white cotton-like substance found in the seed- 

 vessels of many plants, and among other trees is sometimes suspended on a small branch of Casua- 

 rina or an Acacia pendula. The ground-colour of the eggs is dull white, with very minute spots 

 of brown scattered over the surface ; they are nine lines long by five lines and a half broad. 



The male has the head, all the upper surface, wings, and tail black, glossed with steel-blue ; 

 primaries black ; throat, breast, and under tail-coverts scarlet ; flanks dusky ; abdomen white, with 

 a broad patch of black down the centre ; irides dark brown ; bill blackish-brown ; feet dark 

 brown. The female is dull black above, glossed with steel-blue on the wings and tail ; throat and 

 centime of the abdomen buff ; flanks light brown ; under tail-coverts pale scarlet. 



THE FIFTH FAMILY OF THE FINCH-LIKE PERCHING BIRDS. THE AMPELID.E. 



CHATTERERS. 



The true Chatterers are a small group of birds, of which the Bohemian Waxwing and the Cedar 

 Bird of America are the familiar examples. Some naturalists place along with these birds, the sole 

 representatives of the genus Ampelis, a few Central American genera, which probably belong to the 

 family, but are not Wax- wings. The chai-acters which distinguish the Ampelidce are a short and 

 rather stout bill, a little widened, with a nearly obsolete hook, and faint indications of an incision near 

 the tip of the bill ; the plumage is very soft and silky ; the wing is long, but the tarsus is very short. 

 Even admitting the five supposed Central American species of Central American Chatterers, the whole 

 family contains only eight species, of which two are confined to the Paleearctic region, the best known 

 being 



THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING, OR WAXEN CHATTERER (Ampelis garrulun}. 

 This bird gains its name of Waxwing from the beautiful ornamentation which appears on the 

 secondary quills, and there takes the form of an elongated drip of sealing-wax, which is also occasion- 

 ally, but more rarely, developed on the tail-feathers. The home of the Waxwing extends throughout 

 the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America, and a considerable migration takes place in 

 winter, sometimes in such numbers that the bird is supposed in some of the countries of Central 

 Europe to be the precursor of famine or pestilence, and this circumstance has gained for it in Holland 

 the name of Pestvogel. It is difficult, at a distance of many years, to imagine the excitement which 

 existed in former days amongst zoologists concerning the nest of the Waxwing, and the first authentic 

 record that was published of the breeding of this bird was an account of the researches of the late 

 Mr. John Wolley, to whose indefatigable zeal the world is indebted for positive information of 

 the nidification of a great number of the rarer European birds. Professor Newton* has told the 

 story of Mr. Wolley's success in finding the Waxwing's nest. " It is unnecessary to repeat here 

 the fabulous accounts given by former writers respecting the nidification of this bird. The very 

 plain statement communicated by Mr. Wolley to the Zoological Society on the evening of the 24th of 

 March, 1857, is sufficient to set them at rest for ever. But still I may remark that from the days of 

 Linnaeus (who said of it, ' Nidus in rupium antris''} downwards, neai*ly all the conjectures published 

 seem to have been wide of the mark. In years gone by, one of the hardiest of our Arctic explorers? 

 Sir John Richardson, had failed to ascertain anything connected with its breeding in the far countries 

 of the north-west ; and, more recently, the intrepid Siberian traveller, Dr. A. Von Middendorf, was 

 unsuccessful in the north-east. Yet it may be safely said that there was 110 bird whose egg was so 



* "Ibis" for 1861, p. 93. 



