NS 
BOREMIAN WAXWING. 
Ampelis garrulus Linné. 
UR WAXWINGS, the BoHemian as well as the Carolinean, belong in many 
respects to our most interesting and peculiar birds. Both species show a roving 
character and a certain mystery.in their life, both are similar in color and very beautiful. 
The Cedarbird is a common summer sojourner in many parts of the United States, 
and consequently we are more familiar with its life history than with that of the 
Bohemian Waxwing, which only in special winters enters our territory in immense 
numbers. Although a true cosmopolitan, breeding in the Arctic regions of America, 
Europe, and Asia, it seems to be nowhere common, and in America only a few nests 
have been discovered. Its nest has been found by Mr. Kennicott on the Yukon, and by 
Mr. McFarlane in the Anderson River region. The nest which the first named naturalist 
found July 4, on the Yukon, was situated about eighteen feet from the ground and 
contained one egg. It was built on the side branch of a small spruce that was growing 
at the outer edge of a clump of thick spruces, on low ground. The structure was built 
of small dry spruce twigs, and the lining consisted of fine grass, moose hair, and a 
thick layer of feathers. 
A set of four eggs in Capt. B. F. Goss’ excellent collection of eggs of North 
American birds, now exhibited in the Public Museum of Milwaukee, Wis., was collected 
in Labrador June 18, 1885. The ground-color of these eggs is bluish, like those of the 
Cedarbird, but the eggs are more heavily spotted, all over the surface, with lilac and 
dark brown. In other respects they closely resemble those of the Cedarbird, but are 
larger. 
Although the Waxwings are very gregarious, moving mostly in immense numbers, 
they are not so abundant in their breeding haunts, where they are distributed over an 
immense territory. They usually migrate southward when the berry crop of their 
northern home has failed to give a good yield. I have seen them only once during my 
youth in Wisconsin, and then again in the winter of 1875 to 1876, and 1878 to 1879 
in northern Illinois. While residing in the Ozark region of Missouri, my friend Miss 
Hedwig Schlichting informed me in the winter of 1886 to 1887, that the Bohemian 
Waxwings were very common in Milwaukee, usually frequenting the mountain ash trees 
early in the morning just after day break. The trees stood very near the window of 
her room, and she could watch the birds at leisure. Cedarbirds were also among the 
flocks, and somewhat later in the day Evening Grosbeaks and American Pine Grosbeaks 
visited the same spot. The birds frequented these trees until all the berries were con- 
sumed. The lady remarks also that the Waxwings, and the above named Grosbeaks, 
usually appear in large numbers when the mountain ash trees in the gardens and the 
juniper bushes near the shore of Lake Michigan are loaded with berries. Whenever she 
noticed these birds there was always an abundant crop of these berries. 
The Bohemian Waxwings do not move far to the South. They have been observed 
south to Philadelphia, Ohio, Nebraska, Colorado, and even Arizona. Since they inhabit 
