BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 
459 
sively frugivorous habits, was finally restored by him to Am-- 
pelis^ in which he was followed by Latham. Brisson placed 
it in Turdus^ and Illiger in Corvus. Ornithologists now con^ 
cur in regarding it as a genus, disagreeing only as to the name, 
some calling it Bomhycipliora, others Bombycivora^ though 
they all appear to have lately united in favour of the more 
elegant and prior termination of Bomhycilla, 
The waxwings, which we place in our family Sericati, ha- 
ving no other representative in Europe or North America, are 
easily recognised by their short, turgid bill, trigonal at base, 
somewhat compressed and curved at tip, where both mandibles 
are strongly notched ; their short feet, and rather long suba- 
cute wings. But their most curious trait consists in the small, 
flat, oblong appendages, resembling in colour and substance 
red sealing-wax, found at the tips of the secondaries in the 
adult. These appendages are merely the coloured corneous 
prolongation of the shafts beyond the webs of the feathers. 
The new species from Japan is, as we have mentioned, at all 
times without them, as well as the young of the two others. 
The plumage of all is of a remarkably fine and silky texture, 
lying extremely close ; and they are all largely and pointedly 
crested, the sexes hardly differing in this respect. 
The waxwings live in numerous flocks, keeping by pairs 
only in the breeding season ; and so social is their disposition, 
that, as soon as the young are able to fly, they collect in large 
bands from the whole neighbourhood. They perform exten- 
sive journeys, and are great and irregular wanderers. Far 
from being shy, they are simple and easily tamed, but gene- 
rally soon die in confinement. Their food consists chiefly of 
juicy fruits, on which they fatten, but to the great detriment 
of the orchard, where they commit extensive ravages. When 
fruits are scarce, they seize upon insects, catching them dex- 
terously in the same manner as their distant relatives the fly- 
catchers. No name could be more inappropriate for these birds 
than that of chatterers, as there are few less noisy, and they 
