1922] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Stikine Region 273 



The Bohemian waxwing, that is, the subspecies Bombycilla garrula 

 pallidiceps, has been discovered nesting at so few points in North 

 America that it seems worth while to give a resume of the findings of 

 previous observers for comparison with our own. 



The first North American breeding record was announced by Baird 

 (1866, 406), as follows: "The only instances on record of their dis- 

 covery in America are of a nest and one egg by Mr. Kennicott, on the 

 Yukon, in 1861, and a nest and single egg on the Anderson River, by 

 Mr. MacFarlane, both of which, with the female parents, are in the 

 possession of the [Smithsonian] Institution." 



Kennicott 's nest was described by Brewer (in Baird, Brewer, and 

 Ridgway, 1874, 398) : "At Fort Yukon, July 4, Mr. Kennicott met 

 with the nest of this species. The nest, which contained but one egg, 

 was about eighteen feet from the ground, and was built on a side 

 branch of a sniall spruce that was growing at the outer edge of a clump 

 of thick spruces, on low ground. The nest was large, the base being 

 made of small, dry spruce twigs. Internally it was constructed of 

 fine grass and moose hair, and lined thickly with large feathers." 



In 1901, Brooks discovered the waxwing breeding at 158-Mile 

 House, in the southwestern corner of the Cariboo district, British 

 Columbia. 



I first noticed them there on 11th June, when I came across a small flock and 

 shot one which proved on dissection to be a female about to lay. On returning 

 to the same spot I found the Waxwings, consisting of a colony of five pairs of 

 birds, still there, and soon discovered a nest in a Murray pine, near the end of 

 a limb and about twenty-five feet up, this then (12th June) contained two eggs. 

 On the 15th I took this set, which then consisted of four eggs. The nest was 

 loose and bulky, composed of Usnea moss, dry grass and weed stems, and lined 

 with fine material, with a few green aspen leaves in the lining, no doubt to 

 render the eggs less conspicuous. On the 26th June I carefully looked over all 

 the trees in the neighborhood with my binocular, and found three more nests, all 

 in tall Douglas fir trees; two of these I was able to climb to; each contained 

 four eggs within a few days of hatching. The nests were similar to the first 

 but without the green aspen leaves, probably due to the fact that the nests were 

 better concealed from above (Brooks, 1903, p. 283). 



On June 10, 1908, R. M. Anderson found the species nesting near 

 Port Smith, at the boundary between Alberta and Mackenzie. In 

 nearly all respects the circumstances were as we found them on the 

 Stikine. 



Soon I saw what appeared to be a nest, a moss-covered bunch near the top 

 of a straight, slender jack-pine {Finns hanhsiana) , about 45 feet from the ground. 

 The nest, however, was so artfully concealed and draped with mosses that I 

 could not be sure that it really was a nest until I actually peered over the edge 

 of it. 



