105 
of the Breeding of the Waxwing. 
Baring the past summer it seems to have been rather more 
numerous. I am told of fifty-two eggs having been collected for 
me by the agents of my late friend, whom I keep in my own 
employment, but these specimens have not hitherto arrived. 
Early in the present year, Mons. C. F. Dubois described and 
figured the egg of the Wax wing in the f Revue et Magasin de 
Zoologie*/ but without stating whether his example had been 
obtained from Mr. Wolley, or derived through another source. 
M. Dubois states that its egg “ ressemble beaucoup h celui du 
Coccothraustes vulgaris et du Lanius ruficeps; il peut facilement 
etre confondu avec les oeufs de ces derniers.” In this latter 
assertion I do not agree with him. Out of the several hundred 
specimens which form the series I possess, there is not one, I 
think, which could be taken for that of either the Hawfinch or 
the Woodchat Shrike, though I freely admit there is a likeness 
to the eggs of bothf. 
Thus much have I to record of the particulars of this dis¬ 
covery, which, I think, had been looked forward to by collectors 
all over the world as by far the most interesting that could be 
made. It is indeed somewhat surprising that the nidification of 
a Passerine bird generally known throughout the greater part 
of three quarters of the globe, and which had been sought 
for even in its most inhospitable regions once and again by the 
most venturesome of voyagers, should so long have remained 
enveloped in mystery. Rut I also think that few of his brethren 
in science will grudge the original finder the honour he merits ; 
and writing these words as I do on the first anniversary of the 
day which saw his removal from amongst us, I do not hesitate to 
declare my belief that no one of the many earnest fellow-workers 
with whom it is my privilege to be associated better deserved a 
* Revue et Magasin de Zoologie, Fevrier 1860, p. 64. pi. 2. fig. 4 (mis¬ 
called on plate “ Bombycilla cserulea ”). 
f Since the above was in type, I have seen No. 1, for 1860, of the 
‘ Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de Moscou/ which 
contains an interesting notice by Prof. Alex. v. Nordmann of the Birds 
of Finland, as observed by his son Arthur. It is therein mentioned 
(page 21) that the Helsingfors Museum contains five nests, with eggs, of 
the Waxwing, and that “ Studiosus Malmgren ” had brought its young 
from Kajana. 
