266 
THE BOHEMIAN WAX-WING, OR WAXEN CHATTERER. 
gardens round by thousands, in quest of the berries of a tree, which I believe is the mountain 
ash, having been driven south, as I suppose, either on account of the cold or in search of 
food. Some of the Hocks contained several thousands, but are now much diminished in num- 
bers, on account of some having gone southwards, and others been killed. They make a great 
noise when sitting together, which they do in great numbers, making a tree look quite black 
with them. On one occasion I killed twenty at one shot, at another eighteen, and at another 
seventeen. One of these birds I shot had the wax at the tip of the tail, as well as on the 
wings.” This curious divergence from the usual formation has been noticed in the cedar bird 
(an American species of the same genus), by Wilson, as will be mentioned in the account of 
that bird. Perhaps the waxen appendage of the tail may rather be termed a full development 
of the original idea, than a divergence from the usual form. 
BOHEMIAN WAX-WING, OE WAXEN CHATTEBEE .— Ampelis garrulus. 
The long, flat, scarlet appendages to the wings, and, as we have seen, to the tail also, are 
usually confined to the secondaries and tertiaries, at whose extremities they dangle as if they 
had been foimed separately, and fastened to the feathers as an after-thought. Indeed, they so 
precisely resemble red sealing-wax, that any one on seeing the bird for the first time would 
probably suppose that a trick had been played upon him by some one who desired to tax his 
credulity to a very great extent. The full number of these appendages is eight, four on the 
secondaries and the same number on the tertiaries, but they vary according to the age of the 
bird, the secondaries keeping their full complement, and the tertiaries having from one to 
four, according to age and development. Hone of the wax-like appendages are developed 
until the second year. 
Although the migratory habits of this bird are well known, and many of the localities 
which it frequents have been recorded by various writers, no one seems to have any certain 
information as to its true home, or the country wherein it breeds, although it is so numerous 
a species in its own locality that its hiding-places could hardly have escaped notice had they 
occurred within the ordinary limits of scientific observation. 
