101 



THE WAX WING. 



(Ampelis garrulus.) 



THIS beautiful little bird has its nesting place in the far 

 north. It often visits Mid-Europe in winter in great 

 numbers, principally frequenting juniper plantations, 

 where it is easily snared. Its flesh being a great 

 delicacy, it is much sought for. Moving along the 

 headlands it passes also into the valleys, and even visits 

 the gardens and parks of great towns, especially where 

 mistletoe is found on the old trees. When in need it 

 eats seeds ; it also feeds on the berries of whitethorn, 

 mountain ash, hawthorn, and other bushes. It has a 

 good appetite and digests its food very quickly, but is 

 somewhat inactive in its movements. It lives in colonies 

 sometimes smaller sometimes larger. Its breeding 

 range extends across Behring Straits to Alaska and the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



The Waxwing visits Great Britain at irregular 

 intervals, often in large numbers, during the winter. 

 Being an inhabitant of the Arctic regions, its visits are 

 more frequently paid to the Northern and Eastern sides 

 of the country, but it has been seen often in the Southern 

 counties. In Norfolk, on the spring migration, it is 

 sometimes seen up to the first week in May. It is a 

 silent, gentle-mannered bird and its only note is a low 

 cir-ir-ir-ir-re . It is essentially a wandering species and 

 is very erratic as to its nesting places, belonging to the 

 class the poet refers to in those lines 



* The birds of passage transmigrating come, 

 Unnumbered colonies of foreign wing, 

 At Nature's summons." 



