record.'? made at that time in the ‘ Zoologist,’ * between November 
and March, gave a total of 58G examples killed in various 
parts of Great Britain, we had experienced nothing worthy the 
name of a “Waxwing year” till the winter of 18GG— G7; and 
though tlie advent of those birds is by no means limited to severe 
seasons, in this instance, undoubtedly, a very sudden and marked 
change in the weather occurred simultaneously with the appearance 
of the earliest specimens. 
Jsonc Avould seem to have been cither seen or procured prior 
to the 17th of November; but the rapid change in temperature, 
at that time, accompanied by a heavy gale from seaward, and 
followed, on the 19th, by a considerable fall of snow, accounted, 
no doubt, to a great extent for the extraordinary inllux of 
^Vaxwings on our coast, as well as for the appearance, in the early 
morning of the 17th, of an enormous mass of wiMfowl upon 
Surlingham Broad, near Norwich, which, as an old gunner 
described it, “rose like a bank of living birds,” and left the 
neighbourhood altogether. 
It IS difficult to form any estimate of the number of Waxwings 
which, nolens volcits, visited us at that time, since even the 
examples known to have been killed fell far short, in all proba- 
bility, of the actual slaughter. Those only are included in my list 
that came into the hands of our birdstuffers, yet many others may 
have been thrown aside as soon as shot. But as these birds worc 
seen in flocks of from five to ten and twenty, and in some cases, 
even, of fifty and sixty individuals, wo may pi-osuine that the flight 
I which alighted on our shores, and became dispersed by constant 
persecution, amounted to some hundreds. 
The appended list, comprising 141 specimens, shows not only 
the dates of those that came under my own observation, but of 
many of which authentic information was furnished by correspon- 
dents in different parts of the county. From these strangely 
consecutive dates also, extending from November 17th to the 
uth of January following, I am inclined to think that we had no 
'Second arrival during that winter, but, as before remarked, the 
original flock having alighted on every part of our extended 
•See ‘Zoologist,’ 1850, preface (p. ix.). 
