BOM

110

The

that it could be neither the one nor the other
worthy Italian gravely assures his readers that its feathers
do not shine in the night; for he says he kept one alive
for three months, and observed it at all hours (quâvis noctis
horâ contemplatus sum).

It is by no means improbable that this bird was the
Trápaloc (Gnaphalus) of Aristotle (Hist. Anim., Book ix.
c. 16).

The geographical range of the Bohemian Chatterer is extensive, comprehending a great portion of the arctic world. It appears generally in flocks, and a fatality was, at one time, believed to accompany their movements. Thus Aldrovandus observes that large flights of them appeared in February, 1530, when Charles V. was crowned at Bologna; and again in 1551, when they spread through the duchies of Modena, Piacenza, and other Italian districts, carefully avoiding that of Ferrara, which was afterwards convulsed by an earthquake. In 1552, according to Gesner, they visited the banks of the Rhine, near Mentz, in such myriads that they darkened the air. In 1571 troops of them were seen flying about the north of Italy, in the month of December, when the Ferrarese earthquake, according to Aldrovandus, took place, and the rivers overflowed their banks.

Necker, in his memoir on the birds of Geneva, observes that from the beginning of this century only two considerable flights have been observed in that canton, one in January, 1807, and the other in 1814, when they were very numerous, and, having spent the winter there, took their departure in March. In the first of those years they were -scattered over a considerable part of Europe, and, early in January, were seen near Edinburgh. Savi observes that they are not seen in Tuscany except in very severe winters, and that the years 1806 and 1807 were remarkable for the number of them which entered Piedmont, especially the valleys of Lanzo and Suza.

It has been said that it is always rare in France, and that of late years it has become scarce in Italy and Germany; but Bechstein observes, that in moderate seasons it is found in great flights in the skirts of the forests throughout the greater part of Germany and Bohemia, and that it is to be seen in Thuringia only in the winter; if the season be mild, in very small numbers, the greater portion remaining in the north; if the weather be severe, it advances farther south. The Bohemian Chatterer must be considered only as an occasional visitant to the British islands, though Pennant says that they appear only by accident in South Britain, but that about Edinburgh they come annually in February, and feed on the berries of the mountain-ash; adding, that they also appear as far south as Northumberland, and, like the fieldfare, make the berries of the white thorn their food: he records the death of one which was killed at Garthmeilio in Denbighshire, in a fir tree, during the severe frost of December, 1788. Latham, in a note to this statement, says, that the late Mr. Tunstall informed him that, in the winter of 1787, many flocks were seen all over the county of York, and that towards the spring a flock of between twenty and thirty were observed within two miles of Wycliffe, his place of residence. Bewick states that, in the years 1790, 1791, and 1803, several of them were taken in Northumberland and Durham, as early as the month of November. Selby says that, in the winter of 1810, large flocks were dispersed through various parts of the kingdom; and that, from that period, it does not seem to have visited our island till the month of February, 1822, when a few came under his inspection, and several were again observed during the severe storm in the winter of 1823. Montagu says that he received it out of Staffordshire, and that he has known others killed in the more southern counties in the autumn and winter. In Mr. Rennie's edition of the Ornithological Dictionary (1833) it appears that one had been shot in the park of Lord Boringdon, at Saltram, in Devonshire, and that not less than twenty had been killed in the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk during the last three winters. Graves says, that about Christmas, 1803, a number were shot in the neighbourhood of Camberwell, from one of which, being but slightly wounded, his figure was taken. In Loudon's Magazine, where much valuable information is preserved, it is stated that a fine specimen was shot near Coventry, in December; 1830, where it appeared to associate with starlings, and that during the same month of the same year six were killed in the vicinity of Ipswich. From the same source we derive the following additional records.

The Bohemian wax-wing, or chatterer, was unusually

BOM

in the few days in January, 1835, in which snow lay upon plentiful in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, the ground. On the 19th, four were seen in Rushbrook: on the 21st, a party of nine or ten was observed in the shot at Liverpool, feeding on the hips (fruit) of a rose; and neighbourhood of Rougham; and on the same day one was either two or three were seen in Ickworth Park. About the Nowton, and one in the gardens of Hardwicke House. On same time one was shot at Norton, and four were seen in the, I believe, 24th, five or six were seen feeding on the haws of hedges in the neighbourhood of Ixworth. The one shot at Norton had several haws in its stomach, as had another that was shot in the neighbourhood of Bungay. Two, at least, additional have been shot in or about Thetford. (Henry Turner, Curator of the Botanic Garden, Bury St. Edmunds, Jan. 30, 1835.)

Evesham, and a female at Claines, both during the past
In Worcestershire, a male was shot at Radford, near
winter; and of the two, deemed a fine pair,' the preserved
Society.
forms are in the museum of the Worcester Natural History
(Berrow's Worcester Journal, April 16, 1835.)

four central of its tail-feathers terminated each with a
A very fine individual (a male it was presumed to be),
horny appendage, the colour of red sealing-wax, and iden-
which had its colours remarkably bright and vivid, and the
tical in kind with that with which each of certain feathers
in the wings is terminated, was killed near Harnaby Bridge,
in the neighbourhood of Carlisle, Cumberland, on Decem-
ber 8, 1831. This was a second individual with appendages
to certain feathers of the tail, which had been taken in the
neighbourhood of Carlisle, Cumberland.
Feb. 1832, p. 84.)
(Phil. Mag.,

with birdlime, near Netherwilton, Northumberland; and I An individual was taken alive early this winter, 1834-35, possession of the captor, who feeds it chiefly with bread. Some other individuals, its companions, were shot, at about saw it lately (April, 1835), very tame and healthy, in the the same time, which he has preserved. (W. C. Trevelyan, Wallington, Northumberland *)

according to Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, they are seen in great numbers every winter, being observed there earlier In northern Russia, and the extreme north of Norway, Europe their migrations are tolerably regular. Very numerous flocks pass through Scania in November, and are than in temperate countries. In northern Asia and eastern again seen on their return in the spring.

a singular coincidence,' says the author last quoted, whilst we were proclaiming this species as American, it was reBut the species is not confined to Europe and Asia. By ceived by Temminck from Japan, together with a new species, the third known of the genus.' Bonaparte says that his best specimen was shot on the 20th March, 1825, on the Athabasca river, near the Rocky Mountains; and he observes that the species appears to be spread widely, as he had been credibly informed by hunters, that cedar-birds of a large kind' had been shot a little beyond the Mississippi: adding, that he is at a loss to conceive why it should never have been observed on this side of the last-mentioned river. Mr. Drummond, in the spring of 1826, saw it near the sources of the Athabasca; and Dr. Richardson observed it in the same season at Great Bear Lake, in lat. 65°, where a male, of which he gives a description, was shot on the 24th May of that year. Specimens, writes Dr. Richardson, procured at the former place, and transmitted to England by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, were communicated by Mr. Leadbeater to the Prince of Musignano, who has introduced the species into his great work on the birds of the United States. In its autumn migration southwards, this bird must cross the territory of the United States, if it does not actually winter within it; but I have not heard of its having been hitherto seen in America to the southward of the fifty-fifth parallel of latitude.

Northern Pacific Ocean being congenial to the habits of
this species, it is probably more generally diffused in New
The mountainous nature of the country skirting the
Caledonia and the Russian-American territories, than to
the eastward of the Rocky Mountain chain.
flocks at Great Bear Lake about the 24th of May, when the
spring thaw has exposed the berries of the Alpine arbutus,
marsh vaccinium, &c., that have been frozen and covered
It appears in
during winter. It stays only for a few days, and none of
the Indians of that quarter with whom I conversed had
Loudon's Magazine' for Sept. 1835, p. 511.

Description. Length about eight inches; the size altogether approaching that of a starling.

seen its nests; but I have reason to believe that it retires | companions caught and hanging, and uttering cries of
in the breeding season to the rugged and secluded moun- distress and fear.
tain limestone districts, in the sixty-seventh and sixty-
eighth parallels, when it feeds on the fruit of the common
juniper, which abounds in these places. Dr. Richardson
adds, that he observed a large flock of at least three or
four hundred on the banks of the Saskatchewan, at Carlton
House, early in May, 1827. They alighted in a grove of
poplars, settling all on one or two trees, and making a loud
twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in the
morning, and were too shy to allow him to approach within
gunshot.

Male. Bill strong, black, except at the base, where the
colour inclines to a yellowish white; nostrils hidden under
small black feathers. Irides purplish-red. Chin and throat
velvety black, as is also the streak (in the midst of which
is the eye) passing from the bill to the hinder part of the
head. Forehead reddish-brown. Head feathers long, silky,
forming a reclining crest approaching to reddish-chestnut,
which the bird can erect or depress at pleasure. Upper
We have hitherto only spoken of these birds in a mi- parts purplish-red, or vinaceous-brown dashed with ash-
gratory state, and the question presents itself, where do colour, the rump lightest. Breast and belly pale purplish-
they breed? To this no one has yet been able to give a ash, tinged with pale brownish-red. Vent and under tail-
satisfactory answer. Bonaparte thinks it probable that their coverts orange-brown, inclining to reddish-orange. Greater
chief place of abode is in the oriental parts of the old conti- wing-coverts black, tipped with white. Lesser wing-coverts
nent, and hazards an opinion that the extensive and ele- of a shade darker than the general tint of the upper plu-
vated table-land of Central Asia is their principal rendez- mage. Primaries black, with a bright-yellow spot near the
vous, whence, like the Tartars in former times, they make white tips of their outer webs. Montagu says that the
their irregular excursions. Temminck is obliged to say, three first are tipped with white, and the others with yellow
Propagation inconnue,' adding an 'on dit,' that it makes on their outer margins, Secondaries grey, tipped with
its nest far up in the north, preferring mountainous coun- white on the outer web, and seven or eight of them termi-
tries, and building in the crevices of rocks. Bonaparte ex-nated with small flattish oval horny appendages, of the
presses his disbelief of this, judging from analogy. Bech-
stein says that it does not build in Germany when wild, but
within the Arctic circle.

Bonaparte gives a very amiable character of these birds in a state of nature, attributing to them a particular sentiment of benevolence, even independent of reciprocal sexual attraction. Not only, says the Prince, do the male and female caress and feed each other, but the same proofs of mutual kindness have been observed between individuals of the same sex. Speaking of their habits he says, 'They always alight on trees, hopping awkwardly on the ground. Their flight is very rapid: when taking wing, they utter a note resembling the syllables zi, zi, ri, but are generally silent, notwithstanding the name that has been given them.' Bechstein says, when wild we see it in the spring eating, like thrushes, all sorts of flies and other insects; in autumn and winter, different kinds of berries; and in time of need, the buds and sprouts of the beech, maple, and various fruittrees. Willughby states that it feeds upon fruit, especially grapes, of which it is very greedy. Wherefore it seems to me,' he adds, 'not without reason, to be called by that name (ampelis). Bonaparte makes their food to consist of different kinds of juicy berries, or of insects, observing that they are fond of the berries of the mountain-ash and phytolacea, and that they are extremely greedy of grapes, and also, though in a less degree, of juniper and laurel berries, apples, currants, figs, and other fruits. He adds that they drink often, dipping their bills repeatedly.

colour of red sealing-wax. Sometimes there are not more
than five or six of these wax-like tips, and in Montagu's
specimen there were five on one side and six in the other.
Graves gives the number at from six to nine (Bechstein at
from five to nine),* and mentions the specimen in Mr. Ha
worth's collection, which had some on the tail, which is
black tipped with yellow, and dashed with ash-colour at the
base. Shanks, toes, and claws, black.

Female. Generally similar to the male; but the yellow
on the wings and tail is not so bright, nor are the wax-like
appendages so large or so numerous.

Some have said that the female wants both the yellow and the wax-like ornaments. Graves says that the female has white on the wing where the male has yellow, and that she is wholly destitute of the waxen appendages. Some females may have been taken with the plumage last-mentioned; but in general, the first description will be found the most correct. Bonaparte's specimen shot on the Athabasca river was a female. It was, according to him, eight and a half inches in length, and fifteen in extent. The bill was three-quarters of an inch long, black, but paler at the base of the under mandible. There was no yellow whatever on the wing. The tail was tipped with paleyellow for half an inch, and four only of the secondaries were furnished with the bright-red appendages. Bechstein says that the narrow wax tips at the end of the tail denote that the bird is a very old male. The flesh of this species is said to be delicate food.

In captivity its qualities do not appear to be very attractive, according to Bechstein, who says that nothing but its beauty and scarcity can render the possession of it desirable, for that it is a stupid and lazy bird. Indeed, he draws such a picture of its greediness and dirty habits that, if it be not overcharged, few, we should think, would wish to have it as an inmate. Leaving out the more unpleasant parts of his description, we take the following extract from his cage-birds or stove-birds :-During the ten or twelve years that it can exist in confinement, and on very meagre food, it does nothing but eat and repose for digestion. If hunger induces it to move, its step is awkward, and its jumps so clumsy as to be disagreeable to the eye. Its song consists only of weak and uncertain whistling, a little resembling the thrush, but not so loud. While singing, it moves the crest, but hardly moves the throat. If this warbling is somewhat unmusical, it has the merit of continuing throughout every season of the year. When angry, which happens sometimes near the common feeding-trough, it knocks very violently with its beak. It is easily tamed.' The same author says, that in confinement the two universal pastes appear delicacies to it; and it is even satisfied with bran steeped in water. It swallows everything voraciously, and refuses nothing eatable, such as potatoes, cabbage, salad, fruit of all sorts, and especially white bread. It likes to bathe, or rather to sprinkle itself with water, for it does not wet itself so much as other birds.

It is taken in nooses, to which berries are fixed, which, for this purpose, says the author last quoted, 'should always be kept in store till February. It appears to be frightened

In a fine specimen shot in January, 1835, by Mr. John Crosthwaite, of

at nothing, for it flies into nets and traps, though it sees its Hall Garth, in Thornthwaite, close to his own house, the secondaries were

AMERICAN WAX-WING.

The American war-wing, or cedar-bird, was considered by some of the older naturalists to be identical with the European species from which it had degenerated. Latham was of this opinion which all now agree in considering erroneous. The specific differences are too strongly marked to admit of any doubt on the subject.

*

This species is the Ampelis Garrulus var. B. of the Systema Natura; Garrulus Carolinensis, Le Jaseur de Caroline, the Chatterer of Catesby; Turdus Garrulus Carolinensis of Klein, Coquantototl of Hernandez; Avis Americana cristata, Xomotl dicta of Seba; Chatterer of Carolina of Edwards; Cedar-bird, Ampelis Americana, of Wilson; Recollet of the Canadian Voyageurs; Bombycilla Carolinensis of Brisson, Bonaparte, Audubon, and others. It is said to be found in the whole extent between Mexico and Canada, and parties are said occasionally to roam as far south as the forests of Guiana. In the United States it is a resident during the whole year, the northern and middle states being its more usual quarters in the summer, and the southern in the winter season. It is stated that the bird has been found on the north-west coast of America, but its northern boundary appears to fall short of that of Bombycilla Bohemica. Say saw it near Winnipeg river, in latitude 50°, and Dr. Richardson states his belief that it has not been hitherto observed to the northward of the fifty-fourth parallel. He says that Mr. Drummond saw several small flocks on the south branch of the Saskatchewan on the 27th June, and gives a description of a male killed there in lat. 52° on that day, 1827. He adds, that it frequents the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior in summer.

such excess, as sometimes to be unable to fly, and suffer
themselves to be taken by the hand. Indeed I have seen
some which, although wounded and confined in a cage,
have eaten of apples until suffocation deprived them of life,
in the course of a few days. When opened afterwards, they
were found to be gorged to the mouth.
Notwithstanding this greediness they are, according to
some writers, remarkable for their social and kindly dispo
sition in a state of nature. Nuttall, on the authority of an
eye-witness, states that one among a row of these birds
seated upon a branch, darted after an insect, and offered it
to his associate when caught, who very disinterestedly
passed it to the next, and each delicately declining the
offer, the morsel went backwards and forwards before it was
appropriated.

After fattening on the fruits of May and early June they begin to turn their attention to the continuation of the species, and commence, about the tenth or twelfth of the latter month, building a nest large in proportion to the bird, sometimes in their favourite cedar-tree (Juniperus Virginiana, Willd.), but more frequently in the orchards, generally choosing a forked or horizontal branch of an apple tree some ten or twelve feet from the ground. Outwardly and at bottom is laid a mass of coarse dry stalks of grass; the inside is lined entirely with very fine stalks of the same material. The eggs are three or four, of a dingy bluish white, thick at the great end, tapering suddenly, and becoming very narrow at the other, marked with small roundish spots of black of various sizes and shades; and the great end is of a pale dull purple tinge, marked likewise with touches of various shades of purple and black. About the last week in June the young are hatched, and are at first fed on insects and their larve; but as they advance in growth, on berries of various kinds. The female,' says Wilson, from whose personal observation the foregoing facts are given, if disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a considerable distance; no notes of wailing or lamentation are heard from either parent, nor are they even seen, notwithstanding you are in the tree examining the nest and young. . . . The season of love, which makes almost every other small bird musical, has no such effect on them; for they continue at that interesting period as silent as before."

The cedar-birds utter a feeble lisping sound, and 'fly,' says Wilson, in compact bodies of from twenty to fifty; and usually alight so close together on the same tree, that one half are frequently shot down at a time. In the months of July and August, they collect together in flocks, and retire to the hilly parts of the state, the Blue Mountains, and other collateral ridges of the Alleghany, to enjoy the fruit of the Vaccinium uliginosum, whortleberries, which grow there in great abundance, whole mountains for many miles being almost entirely covered with them; and where, in the month of August, I have myself found the cedarNuttall, who observes that they are so sociable even in birds numerous. In October they descend to the lower the breeding season that several nests may be observed in cultivated parts of the country, to feed on the berries of the the same vicinity, gives the following interesting account of :-'Two nests in the Botanic Garden at sour gum, and red cedar, of which last they are immo- their nidification:derately fond; and thirty or forty may sometimes be seen Cambridge were found in small hemlock trees,* at the disfluttering among the branches of one small cedar-tree, tance of sixteen or eighteen feet from the ground, in the plucking off the berries........... In the fall, and begin- forks of the main branches. One of these was composed of ning of summer, when they become very fat, they are in dry coarse grass, interwoven roughly with a considerable considerable esteem for the table; and great numbers are quantity of dead. hemlock sprigs, further connected by a brought to the market of Philadelphia, where they are sold small quantity of silk-weed lint, and lined with a few strips at from twelve to twenty-five cents per dozen. During of thin grape-vine bark, and dry leaves of the silver fir. İn the whole winter and spring they are occasionally seen; the second nest the lining was merely fine root fibres. On and about the 25th of May appear in numerous parties, the 4th of June this nest contained two eggs: the whole making great havoc among the early cherries, selecting number is generally about four or five; these are of the the best and ripest of the fruit. Audubon says that they usual form, not remarkable for any disproportion at the two reach Louisiana about the beginning of November, and ends, of a pale clay white, inclining to olive; with a few retire towards the middle districts in the beginning of well-defined black or deep umber spots at the great end, March. The holly,' writes the author last quoted, the and with others seen, as it were, beneath the surface of the vines, the persimon, the pride of China, and various other shell. Two or three other nests were made in the appletrees, supply them with plenty of berries and fruits, on trees of the adjoining orchard, one in a place of difficult acwhich they fatten, and become so tender and juicy as to be cess, the other on a depending branch easily reached by the hand. These were securely fixed horizontally among the sought by every epicure for the table. I have known an instance of a basketful of these little birds having been ascending twigs, and were formed externally of a mass of forwarded to New Orleans as a Christmas present." And dry wiry weeds; the materials being firmly held together delicious these fruit-eating birds (for such is their general by a large quantity of cordweed down, in some places diet, albeit they are said to be excellent fly-catchers) un- softened with glutinous saliva, so as to be formed into coarse doubtedly are; though Hernandez, who met with them connecting shreds. The round edge of the nest was made near Tetzeuco (apud Tetzcoquenses), says that neither in of coils of the wiry stolons of a common cinquefoil, then their song nor in the flavour of their flesh are they better lined with exceedingly fine root-fibres; over the whole, to than other small birds, neque est cantu aut nutrimento give elasticity, were laid fine stalks of a slender juncus, or cæteris aviculis commendatior.' Their appetite is extra-minute rush. In these nests the eggs were, as described ordinary 'they gorge themselves,' observes Audubon, to by Wilson (except as to form), marked with smaller and more numerous spots than the preceding. From the latetipped with yellow, and there were five only of the appendages or tips on one wing, and seven on the other. It is added that this is the only individual ness of the autumn, at which period incubation is still which has been shot in this part since 1803. (Loudon's Magazine for 1835, going on, it would appear that this species is very prolific, quoting the Carlisle Journal.) and must have at least two hatches in a season; for as late as the 7th of September a brood in this vicinity were yet in the nest. The period of sitting is about fifteen or sixteen days.

Probably, as Latham observes, from the colour and appearance of its crest resembling the hood (cucullus) of an order of friars of that denomination. This crest the bird can lower and contract at pleasure, so that it can hardly be ob served. In some parts of the country they are called cherry-birds and crown

birds.

+ Dr. Richardsou well observes, that Cook and others who have made this etatement, might easily mistake the preceding species (B. Bohemica) for that before us.

Having endeavoured to give the reader some idea of the part of the back and wing-coverts, a dark fawn colour; habits of the cedar-bird in a state of nature, we proceed to darkest on the back, and brightest on the front; head or lay before him Nuttall's account of its manners in cap-namented with a high pointed, almost upright crest; line tivity :from the nostril over the eye to the hind head velvety black, A young bird, from one of the nests described in the bordered above with a fine line of white, and another line hemlock, was thrown upon my protection, having been by of white passes from the lower mandible; chin black, grasome means ejected from his cradle. In this critical situa-dually brightening into fawn colour, the feathers there tion however he had been well fed or rather gorged with lying extremely close; bill black, upper mandible nearly berries, and was merely scratched by the fall he had re- triangular at the base, without bristles, short, rounding at ceived. Fed on cherries and mulberries he was soon well the point, where it is deeply notched; the lower scolloped fledged, while his mate in the nest was suffered to perish at the tip, and turning up; tongue as in the rest of the by the forgetfulness of his natural protectors. Coeval with genus, broad, thin, cartilaginous and lacerated at the end; the growth of his wing-feathers, were already seen the re- belly yellow; vent white; wings deep-slate, except the two markable red waxen appendages, showing that their ap- secondaries next the body, whose exterior vanes are of a pearance indicates no particular age or sex; many birds, in fawn colour, and interior ones white, forming two whitish fact, being without these ornaments during their whole strips there, which are very conspicuous; rump and taillives. I soon found my interesting protegée impatient of coverts pale light blue, tail the same, gradually deepening the cage, and extremely voracious, gorging himself to the into black, and tipped for half an inch with rich yellow. Six very mouth with the soft fruits on which he was often fed. or seven, and sometimes the whole nine, secondary feathers The throat, in fact, like a craw, admits of distention, and of the wings are ornamented at the tips with small red obthe contents are only gradually passed off into the stomach. long appendages, resembling red sealing-wax; these appear I now suffered the bird to fly at large, and for several days to be a prolongation of the shafts, and to be intended for he descended from the trees in which he perched to my arm preserving the ends, and consequently the vanes of the quills for food; but the moment he was satisfied he avoided the from being broken and worn away by the almost continual cage, and appeared by his restlessness unable to survive fluttering of the bird among the thick branches of the cedar, the loss of liberty. He now came seldomer to me, and The feathers of those birds which are without these apfinally joined the lisping muster cry of tze, tze, tzé, and pendages are uniformly found ragged on the edges; but was enticed away, after two or three attempts, by his more smooth and perfect in those on whom the marks are full attractive and suitable associates. When young, nature and numerous. These singular marks have been considered provided him with a loud impatient voice, and té-did, té-did, as belonging to the male alone, from the circumstance perkai té-did (often also the clamorous cry of the young Balti- haps of finding female birds without them. They are howmore) was his deafening and almost incessant call for food. ever common to both male and female. Six of the latter Another young bird of the first brood, probably neglected, are now lying before me, each with large and numerous cried so loud and plaintively to a male Baltimore bred in clusters of eggs, and having the waxen appendages in full the same tree, that he commenced feeding it. Mr. Winship perfection. The young birds do not receive them until the of Brighton informs me that one of the young cedar-birds second fall, when, in moulting time, they may be seen fully who frequented the front of his house in quest of honey- formed, as the feather is developed from its sheath. I have suckle berries, at length, on receiving food, probably also once or twice found a solitary one on the extremity of one abandoned by his roving parents, threw himself wholly on of the tail feathers. The eye is of a dark blood colour; the his protection. At large, day and night, he still regularly legs and claws black; the inside of the mouth orange; gap attended the dessert of the dinner-table for his portion of wide; and the gullet capable of such distention as often to ruit, and remained steadfast in his attachment to Mr. Win- contain twelve or fifteen cedar-berries, and serving as a ship till killed by an accident, being unfortunately trodden kind of craw to prepare them for digestion. The chief difunder foot.' ference in the plumage of the male and female consists in the dullness of the tints of the latter, the inferior appearance of the crest, and the narrowness of the yellow bar at the tip of the tail.'

[Bombycilla Carolinensis, ma.e.j

The following is Wilson's description:-Length seven inches, extent eleven inches; head, neck, breast, upper

Audubon gives the following dimensions :-Length six inches and three-fourths, extent of wings eleven, bill along the ridge five-twelfths, along the gap three-fourths, tarsus three-fourths. The length of the male described by Dr. Richardson was seven inches six lines. The Doctor observes that a female procured by Mr. Drummond wanted entirely the waxen appendages to the secondaries, and says that a young bird in Mr. Swainson's collection has the upper plumage of the head and body of a hair-brown colour, paler on the neck and rump: the wings and tail as in the mature bird, except that the former want the waxen appendages. The black frontal mark is narrower, and there is no black on the chin. The under plumage is mostly hair-brown, edged with yellowish-grey, the belly and vent being straw-yellow.

ASIATIC WAX-WING.

The discovery of the Red-winged Chatterer, or Japanese Wax-wing, is one of the fruits of Dr. De Siebold's scientific mission to Japan by the government of the Netherlands. In size it bears a greater resemblance to the Cedar-bird than to the Bohemian Wax-wing, but differs from both in the nakedness of the nostrils (which are not hidden by the small feathers of the front, like the nostrils of the other two species of this small but natural group), in the length of the crest, and the beautiful black plumes with which it is ornamented, and by the entire absence of the wax-like appendages that tip the secondaries of its congeners.

The length of the Japanese Wax-wing is six inches and six lines. The base of the bill is bordered by a black band, which passes to the back of the head, surrounding the eye in its way, and terminates in the lower crest-feathers, which are of the same colour throughout; the chin and throat are black; the crest is long, composed above of feathers of an ashy-reddish colour with an inferior layer of the black

But see Nuttail's account above.

VOL. V.-Q