208 
J. E. LITTLEBOY—NOTES ON BIRDS 
2. The Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus ).—Eor the record oh my next 
bird I am also indebted to Mr. Chapman : he writes to me that his 
brother shot a pair of wax wings in 1881, near the town of Ware, 
and that they are still in his possession. I am also informed by 
Dr. A. T. Brett that a waxwing was shot about ten years ago in 
Watford fields. The wax wings * are a very small sub-family, con¬ 
sisting of birds haying the wing of a starling, the foot of a shrike, 
and a bill intermediate between that of a shrike and a swallow. 
The waxwing is an extremely irregular migrant; it breeds princi¬ 
pally in Lapland, but was met with by Mr. Seebohm during the 
breeding-season in the valleys of the Petchora and Yenesay. In the 
winter of 1866-67 it visited England in extraordinary numbers. In 
that year Mr. Gunn, the well-known naturalist of Norwich, had more 
than a hundred of these birds passed through his hands, and he 
found on examination that their food had consisted of berries of the 
guelder rose, the dog rose, the white thorn, and the privet. “ A 
gipsy migrant like the wax wing, that occasionally visits the British 
Islands in great numbers, is quite as likely to be found in Hert¬ 
fordshire as in any other county.” 
3. The Mealy Bedpoll (Linota linaria ).—A mealy redpoll was 
taken in nets, near Ivinghoe, at the foot of the Chilterns, about the 
end of September, 1883, by Mr. Banfield, bird-dealer, Hemel 
Hempstead. It was shown to me at the time, but I accidentally 
omitted to mention it last year. The mealy redpoll is an irregular 
winter visitant to the British Isles. It is a circumpolar bird, 
breeding at or near the limit of forest growth. In its habits, it is 
nearly allied to its congener, the lesser redpoll, but is distinguish¬ 
able from it by its larger size and the generally lighter and greyer 
appearance of its plumage. 
4. The Chough (Fregilus graculus). —Mr. Henry Cross, of Har- 
penden, reports having met with a chough, which he describes as a 
large black bird with a reddish-yellow beak, on the eastern side of 
the Midland Bailway, near Beech-bottom Wood, on the 27th of May. 
A correspondence has taken place in the 1 St. Albans Times ’ re¬ 
specting the occurrence of this bird, and it has been suggested, as 
choughs are frequently sold to visitors at Trevena in Cornwall, 
where they are always to be found, that the bird in question may 
probably have found its way into Hertfordshire by rail rather than 
by wing. I can only remark in reply that the newspaper corre¬ 
spondence has failed to elicit any information respecting it, and I 
think that in the absence of any such information, I am bound to 
accept it as an accidental visitor to our county. The chough is a 
rare bird and is yearly becoming scarcer. It is essentially a “bird 
of the rocks,”f and still breeds in Cornwall, Devon, Anglesea, and 
some places on the Welsh coast. “ The appearance of the chough, 
which is not a migratory bird, and is confined in our islands to the 
rocky coasts of the west, can only be accidental in Hertfordshire. 
It is possible that a bird may have been caught in a heavy ‘ sou- 
* lb. yoI. ii, p. 1. 
f lb. vol. i, p. 577. 
