THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 61 



parts of Ireland. And as a general departure from that rule, 

 where we chiefly find our most beautiful plumaged species to 

 be summer visitants, we observe an exception in this instance, 

 , as the beautiful waxwing is only forced from other latitudes, 

 an unwilling visitor to our shores, by the rigours of a severe 

 winter. 



A fine male specimen in our collection was obtained during 

 severe weather, near the old castle of Timmon, within a few 

 miles of Dublin, on the 21st of January, 1851, accompanied 

 with another of the same species, both birds associated with 

 missel thrushes which were feeding on the berries of the 

 whitethorn. After some time the missel thrushes attacked 

 the waxwings, and by their combined efforts forced them to 

 retire from what they considered their rightful property. Both 

 the luckless wanderers taking refuge in a ploughed field, the 

 male was shot, and on dissection the stomach was found 

 completely filled with the forbidden fruit. 



Another waxwing, obtained about the same time, was shot 

 in company with a flock of redwings and fieldfares, in the 

 county of Longford. 



The name waxwing, by which this beautiful wanderer is 

 known, is acquired from the secondary quill feathers being 

 tipped with curious scarlet, wax-like appendages. This un- 

 usual appearance, remarked by the ancients, caused it to re- 

 ceive the title of Incendiaria avis, the name bestowed by Pliny. 

 Invested with many fables, it was believed to frequent the 

 Hyrcanian forest, where, during night, it illuminated the 

 woods with its flame -spotted wings. Admired only at a dis- 

 tance, Rome, on several occasions, underwent lustrations after 

 having been frightened from its propriety by flocks of the 

 harmless waxwing. 



Not only has this species excited the interest which we 

 have seen, but its breeding haunts, to the present day, have 

 been hidden in the greatest obscurity, as in no country have 

 they ever been discovered. Many suppositions have been 

 formed, but, in the words of Lucien Bonaparte, the scientific 

 Prince of Canino : u There are circumstances involved in 

 darkness, and which it has not been given to any naturalist 

 to ascertain." The same ornithologist observes : " In Italy 

 their appearance in the large flocks, in which they are gene- 

 rally seen there, make the people look upon them with super- 

 stitious awe, as the precursors of war, pestilence, and other 

 public calamities." 



The si&e of those flocks, large though they be, can scarcely 



