5754 Birds. 



externally of hay, grass, and a little straw, intermixed with roots, sticks, &c. Inter- 

 nally it is lined with a profusion of feathers, paper, cotton, wool, &c. The following 

 are some of the things noticed: — Pieces of green and drab alpaca, white and coloured 

 rags, worsted-twist (one bit 24 inches in length), threads of various length, red tape, 

 strings, boot-lace, flannel, cotton, paper top to reel, silk, horse-Lair, twine, moss, weeds, 

 flower-leaves, &c, Sec— Id. ; June 18, 1857. 



Nidification of the Bohemian Waxwing (Bombycilla garrula). — At the March 

 Meeting of the Zoological Society, Dr. Gray, F.R.S., in the chair, a pair of adult 

 waxwings, killed from their nest, a young bird, and two nests and eggs, were sent for 

 exhibition by Mr. John Wolley, jun. The exhibition was accompanied by the fol- 

 lowing paper, from Mr. Wolley, 'On the Nest and Eggs of the Waxwing:' — "The 

 waxwing, as observed in Lapland, makes a good-sized and substantial nest, but with- 

 out much indication of advanced art. It is of some depth, and regularly shaped, 

 though built of rather intractable materials. As in those of many other birds in the 

 Arctic forests, the main substance is of the kind of lichen commonly called tree-hair, 

 which hangs so abundantly from the branches of almost every tree. This lichen 

 somewhat resembles a mass of delicate rootlets, or perhaps may be compared to coarse 

 brown wool ; but some of it is whitish, and in one nest there is a little of this mixed 

 with the ordinary brown or black. This main substance of the nest is strengthened 

 below by a platform of dead twigs, and higher up towards the interior by a greater or 

 less amount of flowering stalks of grass, and occasionally pieces of Equisetum. It is 

 also interspersed with a little reindeer lichen, perhaps a sprig or two of green moss, 

 and even some pieces of willow cotton. There may also be observed a little of the 

 very fine silvery-looking fibre of grass-leaves, which probably have been reduced to 

 that condition by long soaking in water. In one of the nests examined there were 

 several pen-feathers of small birds as an apology for a lining. Of other nests which 

 are to be found in the same forest it most resembles that of the Siberian jay, but is 

 considerably less than it, which, however, is less securely put together, but has many 

 more feathers and soft materials for a lining. The nest of the waxwing is built on the 

 branch of a tree, not near the bole, and rather, as one of the observers has said, stand- 

 ing up from the branch like a fieldfare's or other thrush's nest, than supported by 

 twigs touching it at the sides, as the nests of many birds are supported. Of six nests 

 four were in small spruces, one in a good-sized Scotch fir, and one in a birch, all 

 placed at a height of from six to twelve feet above the ground. The tree in several 

 instances was unhealthy, thin and scraggy in its branches, to which there hung a good 

 deal of hair lichen ; and the nest seems generally much exposed, though, from its 

 resemblance to the lichen hanging near, it might escape the eye. The nests found 

 were in pans of the forest considerably open, once or twice on the side of low hills 

 near a river, or with an undergrowth of dwarf swamp-loving shrubs. But at present 

 we have scarcely enough examples to show that there is a preference for any particu- 

 lar kind of ground. Five seems to be the ordinary number of eggs ; in one nest only 

 there were as many as six. They have a pale salmon-coloured ground, upon which 

 are distributed, pretty equally, good-sized purple spots, some with more and some with 

 less deep colour, but nearly all of them having a shade or penumbra, such as is com- 

 mon especially in the eggs of the chaffinch. The only very marked variety I have 

 yet seen has short streaks, and much smaller and more numerous spots than usual, of 

 which markings a considerable proportion are of a pale yellowish brown. The eggs 

 may be about an inch in length, but hardly enough have been obtained to determine 



