considovoi-l in connection Avitli my description of Mr. Wolley’s and 
l^fr. Dresser’s nestlings, both as to the size and number of the 
Ava.K-tips, tlio light marks at the end of the outer ■\veb of the 
primaries being yellow in the young bird figured by Mr. Dresser, 
and the latter’s statement that in this youngster “the inner webs 
[outer!] of the secondaries are without any ferminal hand of tchlfe," 
whicli is present in my mature female which has no wax-tips at all. 
IMr. (lunn, in his paper in the Iluddersfield ‘ Xaturalist,’ is 
inclined to roly upon the deptli of colour and defined outline of the 
black patch on tlic throat in males as a guide to tlio sex, but 
immature males so closely resemble, in this and other particulars, 
more matured females that such a test cannot be wholly relied upon. 
Ao. Jd in the list, a male bird, which had not tpiito completed 
the autumnal moult, showed a slight variation from the onlinary 
plumage in having two yellow bars on the tail. This had a curious 
clfect, the new and short feathers, edged with vellow, forming a line 
above the longer ones. 
Colour op Irides, Food, &c. 
I\rr. Gunn is, I think, correct in saying that the younger birds 
have the irides hazel or dark brown, and the older ones red. I have 
certainly seen more of the former than the latter; and Xo. 101 in 
the list, a male with “return” margins on the primaries, had the 
irides carmine-red. 
In this country the food of the M'axwing seems to consist entirely 
of bellies, hitethorn haws and Privet berries forming their 
chief diet. With the former I have found both their cro°ps and 
stomachs crammed and the whole intestines deeply stained with 
the latter. They arc for the most part extremely fat, being no 
doubt in a wild state, as in confinement, ravenous caters. Since 
the great Wax wing year of 1 8GG— 67, only a few stragglers occurred 
from time to time in Xorfolk till the winter of 1872—73, when 
I examined some sixteen specimens killed in various parts of 
the county between the 15th of Xovember and the following 
lebruary; but these presented no fresh features of interest; and 
the majority of them proved to be male binls in fine plumage, 
having from four to six and seven tips on the wings, but in no 
instance eight, or tlie slightest colouring at the extremity of the 
shafts of the tail-feathers. 
