1 74 
allf.n’s naturalist’s library. 
( Gnaphalium ), a little hairy-stemmed, hairy-leaved, plant with 
three or four small thistle like flowers, growing from two to 
four inches high. These the Woodchats pulled out by the roots, 
and wove together into a compact warm nest, which did not 
differ very much in colour from the bark of the olive-trees. 
Occasionally a twig or two was introduced ; but for the most 
part the cudweed, with its flowers and its root, was foundation, 
wall, and lining for the nest.” 
Eggs. — From four to six in number. They present the same 
divergent colours as do the eggs of the Red-backed Shrike ; 
some of the eggs have the ground-colour greenish-white, with 
coarse spots and markings of greenish-brown and underlying 
mottling and spots of pale violet-grey ; these markings are 
sometimes distributed over the larger end of the egg, and have 
a tendency to form a ring. In another type of egg the ground- 
colour is clay-brown with olive-brown mottlings and spots, and 
very distinct underlying spots of violet-grey. In a third type 
the colour is creamy-buff, of a more or less rich tint, the over- 
lying spots being reddish-brown with very distinct under-lying 
spots and mottlings of grey: these grey spots are as distinct 
as in the greenish-white type of egg, but the over-lying markings 
are darker. Axis, o'85~o'95 inch; diam., o'65-o’7. 
THE CHATTERERS. FAMILY AMPELID/E. 
These birds, familiarly known as Wax-wings, must not be 
confounded with the American Chatterers, or Cotingida. The 
peculiar wax-like appendages to the quills and tail-feathers are 
the chief external characteristics of the family, and on that 
account the name of Wax-wings would have been the more 
suitable one; but there are in America certain genera, such as 
Phainoptila and Ptilogonys , which are apparently referable to 
the same family as Ainpelis, but which do not possess the wax- 
like appendages to the wings and tail, and, therefore, the name 
of “ Wax ’’-wing is inapplicable to them. The Ampelidm hav • 
only nine primaries in the wing, the bill swollen with a rounded 
nostril, and are also remarkable for a long silky crest. 
