464 HISTORY OP THE WAXWING IN AMERICA 



vt subito qua transuolabant, ex vmbra earum veluti nox 

 ■>appareret." Many, he says, were caught and eaten ; and 

 pictures of the unknown birds which caused such a prodigy 

 were published. "Eari sunt plerisque in locis, & cum ap- 

 parent pestilens aeris mutatio expectatur"; and such phenom- 

 ena were long held to presage war, pestilence, and other public 

 calamities, or to foretell some national event soon to transpire. 



In February, 1630, according to Aldrovandi, a visitation 

 occurred, marking the coronation of Charles V. at Bologna ; 

 in 1551, large flocks appeared, spreading in numbers through 

 the Modenese, the Plaisantiue, and other parts of Italy, but 

 apparently avoiding the Ferrarese, as if to escape the earth- 

 quake which was soon afterward felt ; and in 1571 flocks of 

 hundreds were seen flying about in the same country. Bona 

 parte, in whose account of 1828 I find these items from Aldro- 

 vandi, states that they have of late years been extremely rare 

 in Italy, Germany, and especially France, being seen only 

 singly or in stray companies of small extent. In the winter 

 of 1810, large flocks were dispersed through England, from 

 which period, says Bonaparte, we do not find the bird re- 

 corded by English writers until February, 1822, when, as well 

 as during the following winter, a few were observed. In Necker's 

 memoir on the birds of Germany, as quoted by the same 

 writer, it is stated that from the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury only two considerable flights had been observed in that 

 canton, one in January, 1807, the other in January, 1814, in 

 which year the birds were numerous, and did not depart until 

 March. In 1807, they were dispersed over much of Western 

 Europe; and they were seen near Edinburgh early in that 

 year. Of very late years, their appearances in Great Britain 

 have been frequently noticed, as may be gathered from the 

 number of references I present in the foregoing bibliography ; 

 the year 1850 is specially prominent in these chronicles. They 

 also visited England, Germany, &c., in unusual abundance in 

 the winter of 1866-67, as testified by the various records I have 

 presented. Schoepflf states (Zool. Gart. 1867, p. 160) that their 

 then appearance in Switzerland was for the first time since 1811. 



The history of the Waxwing in America, to which we will now 

 confine our attention, has never been written in full. It was 

 unknown as an American bird to Vieillot and Wilson ; and any 

 early writer who may have attributed it to this country meant 

 the Cedar-bird, A. cedrorum, which was long regarded by some 



