Birds. 3049 



The Knot. Common in autumn : and these are young birds of the 

 year. 



The Dunlin. Common. 



Purple Sandpiper. Rather scarce. 



James Tracey. 



Pembroke, February, 1851. 



Observations on the Waxwing (Bombycilla garrula). 

 By the Rev. James Smith. 



By a communication from Mr. Thomas Edward, of Banff, I am 

 informed that a specimen of the waxwing was shot, near that town, 

 in the earlier part of this present month. It was a male ; and its 

 plumage was more beautifully vivid than that of a female, which the 

 same individual examined last season with the utmost care, and of 

 which he inserted a minute description in a local newspaper. This 

 difference in the brilliancy of the plumage, he is inclined to attribute 

 to the difference of sex. In the female, now referred to, the carmine 

 tags, which constitute the tips of several of the secondary quills, and 

 which so closely resemble the finest red sealing-wax, were six in 

 number ; whereas, in the male, to which the present communication 

 refers, they were only five, and were, moreover, not so long. This 

 bird was, when shot, in fine condition, was full of flesh, and was very 

 fat. On dissection, his stomach was found to be crammed with ' rod- 

 dens,' which is the name in Lowland Scotch for the berries of the 

 mountain-ash {Pyrus aucuparia, *) , or the rowan-tree, or in Scotland 



* Aucuparia is, apparently, a barbarous adjective formed from aucupium, ' the art 

 of bird-catching' ; and it may intimate that by means of its conspicuous berries, the 

 mountain-ash possesses the property of catching, or of attracting, many of the fea- 

 thered tribes while they are in quest of their food. It would, perhaps, be not unworthy 

 of your editorial station, were you to impress upon your correspondents the propriety 

 of, now and then, explaining the meaning of such scientific, but by no means obvious, 

 terms as they may have occasion to use. I cannot help being strongly of opinion that 

 this is a boon which many of your readers who are ignorant of the dead languages, 

 as they are called, would be inclined to regard as by no means inconsiderable. It is 

 astonishing how long an individual will continue, without reflection, to make use of a 

 word, which to him is, strictly speaking, nothing but an unsubstantial and an un- 

 meaning sound. How different does such a word become, when he is aware of its 

 routs and of its literal signification ; and what a pleasing and a continued light does 

 it emit, where formerly all was darkness and uncertainty ! It is like the opening of a 

 IX. L 



