Class II. WAXEN CHATTERER. 419 



in Febricary, and feed on the berries of the 

 mountain ash : they also appear as far south as 

 Northumberland, and like the fieldfare make 

 the berries of the white thorn their food. That 

 Bohemia is their native country is a mistake of 

 past writers. They breed and pass their sum- 

 mer within the Arctic circle, from whence they 

 disperse themselves (often in vast flocks) over 

 many parts of Europe, but I believe not farther 

 south than Italy. All retire north before the 

 spring. One was killed at Garthmeilio in Den- 

 bighshire, in a fir-tree, during the severe frost 

 of December 1788.'* They were once super- 

 stitiously considered as presages of a pestilence. 

 They are gregarious ; feed on grapes where 

 vineyards are cultivated, and are esteemed deli- 

 cious food ; they are easily tamed. 



The length of the bird I saw was eight Descrip- 

 inches. The bill was short, thick, and black ; the 

 base covered with black bristles ; from thence 

 a bar of black passes to the hind part of the 

 head over each eye : on the head is a sharp 

 pointed crest reclining backwards; the irides 



* The late Mr. Tunstall informed me, that m the winter of 

 1787, many flocks were seen all over the county of York, and 

 that towards the spring a flock of between twenty and thirty 

 were observed within two miles from Wycliffe, his place of resi- 

 dence. Frisch mentions it as a bird of Tartanj, and says it 

 there breeds in the rocks. J. L. 



2 E 2 



TION. 



