WAXWING. 7 



about noon, when a lad called out that he had found the nest ; and there it 

 was, about nine feet high on the branch of a spruce. Ludwig succeeded 

 in snaring the old bird, a beautiful cock, at the end of five days, and packed 

 up the nest, eggs, and bird in a strong box until WoUey's arrival. WoUey 

 writes : — " You can fancy how eagerly I waited for Ludwig to produce the 

 eggs. With a trembling hand he brought them out — ^but first the nest 

 beautifully preserved; it is made principally of black 'tree-hair' (lichen), 

 with dried spruce-twigs outside, partially lined with a little sheep's grass 

 and one or two feathers — a large deep nest. The eggs — ^beautiful ! — 

 magnificent !! — just the character of the American bird. An indescribable 



glow of colour about them ! Almost every day (and it is now 



the sixth since that of my arrival here) Ludwig has told me the whole 

 story of the Sidensvan's nest, and I am never tired of hearing it : — ^how 

 the season was very backward ; how ia their expedition he and Piko Heiki 

 were getting very much out of spirits at the little success they met with ; 

 how he saw the bird in the sunshine; how, when at last the nest was found, 

 he could scarcely believe his eyes ; how he went to it again and again, each 

 time convinced when at the spot, but believing it all a dream as soon as he 

 was at a distance ; the rising and falling of the crest of the bird ; its curious 

 song or voice. All he is eager to tell over and over again ; and I have the 

 fullest version, with all the ' I said,' ' Heiki said,' ' Michel said,' ' Ole 

 said,' " &c. Since Wolle/s great discovery many other nests of the Wax- 

 wing have been obtained by various ornithologists. In 1857 Dr. Nylander 

 obtained a nest with five eggs from the island of Ajos at the head of the 

 Gulf of Bothnia, off the coast of Finland. In 1858 Dresser obtained a 

 nest with unfledged young from the island of Sanden, twenty-seven miles 

 from Uleaborg, a little to the south of the previous locality. In 1862 

 Wheelwright obtained a nest with two eggs near Quickiock; in 1868 

 Nordvi procured its eggs in north-east Norway ; and in 1872 Mr. Berlin 

 discovered two nests containing eggs in the same district. 



A nest of the Waxwing, which Mr. Nordvi procured for me from 

 Muonioniska, is a large and very compact structure. The outside 

 diameter is seven inches, and the inside four inches. It is about four 

 inches high outside, and nearly two inches deep. The foundation is made 

 of twigs of the spruce-fir and reindeer-moss. The nest itself is composed 

 of feathers and black hair-lichen, interwoven together with very slender 

 twigs and a little moss and inner bark, the feathers being most numerous 

 ia the lining. Five or six, and occasionally seven, is the number of eggs 

 laid. Newton (in whose collection the greater part of the enormous series 

 obtained by WoUey still remains) describes them as measuring from 1-11 

 to -82 in length by -73 to "64 inch in breadth. He writes :— "The ground 

 is most generally of a delicate sea-green, sometimes fading to French white, 

 but very often of a more or less pale olive, and occasionally of a dull 



