BIRDS 121 



two earlier.' 1 The point which Mr. Dickinson mentions, of the 

 white body, is a very good one. In the spring of 1891, Messrs. 

 Johnson, Chapman, and myself met with hundreds of these 

 Shrikes in Spain, and I often pointed out the bird to my com- 

 panions at such long distances that the Shrike appeared to be 

 a small white object resting on the outside of a bush. Mr. 

 Hodgkinson is under the impression that James Cooper once 

 saw a Woodchat Shrike at Woodside. His memory is so good 

 that this is probably correct, especially as Cooper must have 

 seen specimens in T. C. Heysham's collection. 



Order PASSERES. Fam. AMPELID^E. 



WAXWING. 



Ampelis garrulus, L. 



My acquaintance with the Waxwing as a Lakeland bird 

 extends from the winter 1882-3, in which half-a-dozen examples 

 were obtained in the north of Cumberland between the 1 8th of 

 December and the 26th of February, to the winter of 1891-2, 

 in which a single bird was killed, on the 3d of February, near 

 Wetheral. The number obtained during this decade has been 

 extremely small, scarcely exceeding a dozen specimens in the 

 whole of Lakeland. This circumstance is not to be accounted 

 for by the supposition that the Waxwing is a solitary species 

 by habit, because it is in fact highly gregarious. The true 

 explanation lies in the fact that it is only once or twice in 

 every five or six years that a few Waxwings cross our eastern 

 fells into Lakeland. This was the opinion held by the late 

 Mr. W. Dickinson, who wrote that ' nights of the Waxwing have 

 occasionally visited the vales of Bassenthwaite and Keswick. I 

 saw one which was shot by Mr. John Crosthwaite, near Thorn - 

 thwaite. They do not come every year, sometimes at intervals 

 of several years.' 2 



The species has occurred all over Lakeland during the last 

 hundred years. The early months of 1787 and 1867 witnessed 

 the only two important immigrations of the Silktail into Lake- 



1 Bern. West Cumberland, p. 21. 2 Ibid. p. 23. 



