— 463 — 



the event, written by Pliny, the Younger, the nephew 

 and adopted son of the Roman naturalist., 



As a laborious, but not always reliable compiler, you 

 have heard of Aldrovandus, born about 1535. I said 

 not always reliable. To illustrate this latter point I shall 

 now quote from the 1st vol. Canadian Naturalist, an 

 extract purporting to describe one of our most beautiful 

 winter visitors, the Bohemian Chatterer, or Waxwing. 

 A specimen is in your museum. I was once fortunate 

 enough to snare three very fine birds of this species, 

 this is the only time I saw them round my house, at 

 Spencer Grange. I kept them all winter in my aviary, 

 and they soon became so bloated, so uncommonly portly 

 from good eating, that they were struck down by apo- 

 plexy, and one after the other died. I need not tell you 

 the sorrow such a catastrophe brought to my family 

 circle. 



" That the Bohemian Chatterer was known to the 

 ancients there can be little doubt, but a great deal of 

 obscurity prevails as to the names by which it was dis- 

 tinguished. Some have taken it to be the Incencliaria 

 avis of Pliny (book x., c. 13), the inauspicious bird, on 

 account of which appearance Eome more than once 

 underwent lustration, but more especially in the consul- 

 ship of L. Cassius and C. Marius, when the apparition 

 of a great owl (Bubo) was added to the horrors of the 

 year. Others have supposed that it was the bird of the 

 Hercynian forest (book x., c. 47), whose feathers shone 

 in the night like fire. Aldrovandus, who collected the 

 opinions on this point, has taken some pains to show 

 that it could be neither the one nor the other. The 

 worthy Italian gravely assures his readers that its 

 feathers do not shine in the night, for he says he kept 

 one alive for three months, and observed it at all hours 

 (qudvis noctis hord contemplatus sum") 



Here is the mysterious stranger who appears to have 

 startled antiquity. See how silky his plumage ! mark 

 the waxlike tips of his wings ! this is no doubt the , 



