284 University of California Publications in Zoology ["^oi-- 24 



bird. While notes of the two species are of the same character, still they 

 are distinguishably different. This difference may, perhaps, be indicated 

 by describing the cedar bird's call as a hiss, the Bohemian waxwing's 

 call as a buzz. The note of the latter is somewhat coarser ; the listener 

 has an impression of hearing a series of very slightly separated notes, 

 rather than of a continuous sound such as the cedar bird utters. The 

 call note has been commented upon by Cameron (1908, p. 47), who 

 says : "When flying the birds keep up an incessant twittering, so that 

 high passing flocks are immediately recognized by their call of zir-r-r-r 

 — a sort of trill. ' ' 



Griscom and Harper (1915, p. 369) make the following comments 

 upon the waxwing's call: "Though similar in general form to the 

 'beady notes' of B. cedrorum, they are less shrill, are more leisurely 

 uttered, and have a more noticeable rolling sound. They are also more 

 distinct, there being a comparatively greater interval between each 

 syllable in the series. The call has been represented by Seebohm as 

 cir-ir-ir-ir-re (quoted in Sharpe's 'Hand-book to the Birds of Great 

 Britain,' Vol. I, p. 177) and by Cameron as zir-r-r-r . . . . , but 

 neither rendering seems to express exactly the decided sibilant quality 

 of each syllable." 



E. M. Anderson (19156, p. 146) makes a rather surprising state- 

 ment regarding the voice of the waxwing. "While on the wing the 

 birds uttered a short succession of high-pitched, screaming notes, 

 closely resembling in character, though not in volume, the cries heard 

 on nearing a Pigeon Guillemot rookery on the seacoast." As far as 

 I am aware this is the only published statement that ascribes to the 

 waxwing any note other than the well-known hissing sound. 



A bird shot by the present writer, which fell to the ground wounded, 

 uttered a loud, chattering noise, the only time I ever heard anything 

 of the kind. The young birds we removed from the nest called a great 

 deal. One of the five fluttered off into the bushes where he escaped 

 observation, but he soon began calling and was thus discovered. Ac- 

 cording to Dixon's notes at the time, the call note of the young wax- 

 wing was much like that of a young California shrike. 



The American waxwing was given the name Bomhycilla garrula 

 pallidiceps by Reichenow (1908, p. 191), with the type locality the 

 Shesly River, northern British Columbia. The Shesly River, a tribu- 

 tary of the Inklin, which in turn empties into the Taku, has its source 

 some twenty-five miles northwest of Telegraph Creek, its mouth, 

 some sixty miles beyond. Thus for all practical purposes our Tele- 

 graph Creek specimens of the waxwing may be regarded as topotypes. 



