350 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 
that we find it placed upon record. However extraordinary 
it may seem to those who live in this enlightened age and 
country that the unusual appearance of “cedar-birds of a 
large kind” should strike terror into the souls of men, such, 
notwithstanding, was the effect in more ignorant times. They 
have been looked upon as the precursors of war, pestilence, 
and other public calamities. One of their irruptions was 
experienced in Italy in 1571, when flocks of hundreds were 
seen flying about in the north of that country in the month 
of December, and were easily caught. A similar visit had 
taken place in 1530, in February, marking the epoch when 
Charles V. caused himself to be crowned at Bologna. Aldro- 
vandi, from whom we learn the above particulars, also in- 
forms us that large flocks of them appeared in 1551, when 
it was remarked, that, though they spread in numbers 
through the Modenese, the Plaisantine, and other parts of 
Italy, they carefully avoided entering the Ferrarese, as if to 
escape the dreadful earthquake that was felt soon after, 
causing the very birds to turn their flight. In 1552, Gesner 
informs us, they appeared along the Rhine, near Mentz in 
Germany, in such numbers as to obscure the sun. They 
have, however, of late years, in Italy and Germany, and in 
France especially, at all times been extremely rare, being 
seen only in small companies or singly, appearing as if they 
had strayed from their way. In England, the Bohemian 
waxwing has always been a rare visitant, coming only at 
long and uncertain intervals. In the winter of 1810 large 
flocks were dispersed through various parts of that kingdom, . 
from which period we do not find it recorded by English 
writers till the month of February 1822, when a few came 
under Mr Selby’s inspection, and several were again observed 
during the severe storm in the winter of 1823. Upon the 
Continent, its returns are subject to similar uncertainty. In 
M. Necker’s very interesting memoir, lately published, on 
the birds of Geneva, we read, that from the beginning of this 
century only two considerable flights have been observed in 
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