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“ The Wax-wiiig, as observed in Lapland,” says Mr, Wolley, “ makes a good-sized and substantial nest, but 
without much indication of advanced art. It is of some depth, and regularly shaped, though built of rather 
intractable materials. As in those of many other birds in the Arctic forests, the main substance is of the 
kind of lichen commonly called tree-hair, which hangs so abundantly from the branches of almost every tree. 
This lichen somewhat resembles a mass of delicate rootlets, or perhaps may be compared to coarse brown 
wool ; but some of it is whitish, and in one nest there is a little of this mixed with the ordinary brown or 
black. This main substance of the nest is strengthened below by a platform of dead twigs, and higher up 
towards the interior by a greater or less amount of flowering stalks of grass, and occasionally pieces of 
equisetum. It is also interspersed with a little reindeer-lichen, perhaps a sprig or two of green moss, and 
even some pieces of willow cotton. There may also be observed a little of the very fine silvery-looking fibre 
of grass-leaves which probably have been reduced to that condition by long soaking in water. In one of the 
nests examined, there were several pen-feathers of small birds as an apology for a lining. 
“ Five seems to be the ordinary number of eggs ; in one nest only there were as many as six. They have 
a pale salmon-coloured ground, upon which are distributed pretty equally good-sized purple spots, some 
with more and some with less deep colour, but nearly all of them having a shade or penumbra, such as is 
common especially in eggs of the Chaffinch.” I should be wanting in courtesy, were I not to acknowledge 
that I am indebted to Mr. Alfred Newton for a fine set of five eggs of this bird, taken by Mr. Wolley. 
“ Myself and two Finnish gentlemen,” says Mr. Dresser, “ arrived at Sanden, a small island out at 
sea, about forty versts from Uleaborg, about two in the morning, and as soon as we had moored the boat, 
set off to see if there was anything in the natural-history way to be got there, but were so plagued with mos- 
quitoes that we returned to the boat to sleep for a time. Just before reaching the boat, I saw a bird in a 
fir-tree which appeared like a Wax- wing ; I therefore shot it, and on examination my conjecture proved to be 
correct ; it was a hen bird, and appeared to have been sitting. After sleeping for an hour or two, we pro- 
ceeded to the middle of the island, and dispersed in search of the nest, without for some time meeting with 
success. At length, following in the track of one of my friends, and seeing him waiting for me under a tree, 
I went towards him ; and on approaching the tree, I saw, at about nine feet from the ground, a nest with four 
young birds sitting bolt upright in it. I scrambled up the tree ; but just as I put up my hand, the birds flew 
out. I jumped down immediately, and secured the largest. Upon being handled, it cried out pretty loudly, 
when a flock of nine old birds issued from a clump of fir-trees, two of which came quite close and called 
incessantly. Believing that they were the parents of my little captive, I shot them both. I then remained 
still, and tried to imitate the cries of the old birds, in which I succeeded so well that a young bird came out 
of a clump of heather and began chirping most lustily. This I caught, and then secured the nest, which 
was firmly fixed between the bole and the lowest branch of the tree ; it was carelessly made of dried sticks 
and moss, and had a rotten egg still remaining within it. This was on the 4th of July, 1858. A few days 
later I observed one or two old birds near Uleaborg town. Professor Nordmann informed me that the M^ax- 
w’ing has also been seen near Abo, and was supposed to have bred there. Magnus von U’right also shot a 
young bird, while flying about with two others in the month of August 1855 or 1856, near Knopio ; it is now 
in the Museum at Helsingfors.” 
In a letter received from Professor Rasch of Christiania, in September 1858, that gentleman says, “Mr. 
Barth has this summer found Ampelis garrulm breeding in Giilbransdalen,” just to the north of Jerkin. 
I observe that specimens killed in North America and Japan are somewhat smaller than those obtained 
in Europe, but do not differ in colour or markings ; and the trifling variation in size is not, in my opinion, 
of sufficient importance to warrant their being regarded as more than races of the same species. In some 
instances the white tippings of the piamaries are absent, having been worn off or not yet assumed. 
Tlie food of the Wax-wing is of a mixed character ; for doubtless in summer it mainly subsists on insects, 
while in winter it feeds upon berries of various kinds, particularly those of the hawthorn, the mountain 
ash, the holly, and the ivy ; and, from the numbers of this bird which occasionally visit this country and 
Central Europe, sometimes in flocks of twenties, fifties, or hundreds, the supply will scarcely be equal to the 
demand. I have heard that in Germany and other parts of the Continent it is frequently killed for the pur- 
pose of the table : Heaven save us from doing this in England ! Return, fairy bird, to the land of thy birth ; 
thou hast run a gauntlet dangerous to thy safety while here. 
The Plate represents a male, a female, a nest, and five young birds, all of the natural size 
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