48 



BOHEMIAN WAX-WING. 



p. 429. t. 26.— Ib. pi. Enl. 261.— Grand Jaseur,Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 124. 

 — Garrulus Bohemicus, Rati, Syn. p. 85. A. — Rothlich grauerseidenschwantz, 

 Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 204. — Bohemian Chatterer, Br. Zool, 1. 

 No. 112. t. 48. — Lath. Syn. 3. p. 91. 1. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Lewin's Br. 

 Birds, 2. t. 65.— Bewick's Br. Birds.— Don, Br. Birds, 1. t. 11.— Pult. Cat. 

 Dorset, p. Ih—Flem. Br. Anim.— Selby, pi. 34. p. 87.* 



This is the only species of the genus ever met with in this country, 

 and that not very frequently. 



The length of this bird is about eight inches ; the size near that of a 

 starling. The bill is black ; irides purplish ; the head and upper parts vina- 

 ceous brown, dashed with ash-colour, lightest on the rump ; the feathers 

 on the crown of the head are long, and form a pointed crest reclining 

 backwards, of a chesnut colour ; over the eye is a black streak passing 

 from the bill to the hind head ; chin and throat black ; breast and belly 

 pale purplish ash-coloured brown, lightest towards the vent ; the greater 

 coverts of the primaries black, tipped with white ; greater quills black, 

 the three first tipped with white, the others with yellow on their outer 

 margins ; the secondaries tipped on the outer web with white, termi- 

 nating in flat horny appendages the colour of red sealing-wax, the 

 number of which varies in different specimens ; in that now before us 

 there are five on one side, and six on the other, but sometimes as many 

 as eight are found; the tail is black, tipped with yellow, and dashed with 

 ash-colour at the base ; the under coverts of the tail chestnut ; legs black. 



The female is said to want the red appendages at the end of the quill- 

 feathers, as also the yellow on the wings : all those, however, which 

 have come under our inspection, killed in England, had those characters ; 

 but it was not ascertained whether any of them were females. Dr. 

 Latham, who has considered the American species, or Carolina chat- 

 terer, as only a variety of this, says both sexes have the wings of a plain 

 colour, and the female has no appendages to the quill-feathers. Mr. 

 Pennant informs us that these birds appear annually about Edinburgh, 

 and feed on the berries of the mountain-ash. We have received it out of 

 Staffordshire, and have known others killed in the more southern coun- 

 ties in the autumn or winter. * As far west as Devonshire, one has been 

 shot in the park of Lord Borringdon, at Saltram.* 



*In the winter of 1810, large flocks were dispersed through various 

 parts of the kingdom, and from that period it does not seem to have 

 visited our island till the month of February, 1822, when Selby informs 

 us a few came under his inspection : in the winter of 1823 a few were 

 again observed during a severe storm. Upon the continent its resi- 

 dence is subject to similar uncertainty ; very little is known of its 



