“ The Wax-wing, as observed in Lapland,” says Mr. Wolley, “ makes a good-sized and substantial nest, but
without, much indication o f advanced art. It is o f some depth, and regularly shaped, though built of rather
intractable materials. As in those o f many other birds in the Arctic forests, the main substance is o f the
kind of lichen commonly called tree-hair, which hangs so abundantly from the branches of almost every tree.
This lichen somewhat resembles a mass of delicate rootlets, or perhaps may he compared to coarse brown
wool; hut some of it is whitish, and in one nest there is a little of this mixed with the ordinary brown or
black. This main substance o f the nest is strengthened below by a platform of dead twigs, and higher up
towards the interior by a greater o r less amount o f flowering stalks of grass, and occasionally pieces of
equisetum. I t is also interspersed with a little rein-deer-lichen, perhaps a sprig or two o f green moss, and
even some pieces of willow cotton. There may also be observed a little o f the very fine silvery-looking fibre
o f grass-leaves which probably have been reduced to that condition by long soaking in water. In one o f the
nests examined, there were several pen-feathers of small birds as an apology for a lining.
“ Five seems to be the ordinary number of eg g s ; in one nest only there were as many as six. They have
a pale salmon-coloured ground, upon which are distributed pretty equally good-sized purple spots, some
with more and some with less deep colour, but nearly all of them having a shade or penumbra, such as is
common especially in eggs of the Chaffinch.” I should be wanting in courtesy, were I not to acknowledge
that I am indebted to Mr. Alfred Newton for a fine set o f five eggs of this bird, taken by Mr. Wolley.
“ Myself and two Finnish gentlemen,” says Mr. Dresser, “ arrived at Sanden, a small island out at
sea, about forty versts from Uleaborg, about two in the morning, and as soon as we had moored the boat,
set off to see if there was anything in the natural-history way to be got there, but were so plagued with mosquitoes
that we returned to the boat to sleep for a time. Ju s t before reaching the boat, I saw a bird in a
fir-tree which appeared like a Wax-wing; I therefore shot: it, and on examination my conjecture proved to be
co rre ct; it was a hen bird, and appeared to have been sitting. After sleeping for an hour or two, we proceeded
to the middle of the island, and dispersed in search o f the nest, without for some time meeting with
success. At length, following in the track of one o f my friends, and seeing him waiting for me under a tree,
I went towards him 5 and on approaching the tree, I saw, at about nine feet from the ground, a nest with four
young birds sitting bolt upright in it. I scrambled up the tre e ; but ju st as I put up my hand, the birds flew
out. I jumped down immediately, and secured the largest. Upon being handled, it cried out pretty loudly,
when a flock o f nine old birds issued from a clump of fir-trees, two o f which came quite close and called
incessantly. Believing that they were the parents of my little captive, I shot them both. I then remained
still, and tried to imitate the cries of the old birds, in which I succeeded so well that a young bird came out
of a clump o f heather and began chirping most lustily. This I caught, and then secured the nest, which
was firmly fixed between the bole and the lowest branch of the t r e e ; it was-carelessly made o f dried sticks
and moss, and had a rotten egg still remaining within it. This was on the 4th of July, 1858. A few days
later I observed one or two old birds near U leaborg town. Professor Nordmann informed me that the Wax-
wing has also been seen near Abo, and was supposed to have bred there. Magnus von U’right also shot a
young bird, while flying about with two others in the month o f August 1855 or 1856, nearKnopio; it is now
in the Museum at Helsingfors.”
In a letter received from Professor Rasch o f Christiania, in September 1858, that gentlemen says, “ Mr.
Barth has this summer found Ampelis garrulus breeding in Gfilbransdalen,” ju st to the north o f Jerkin.
I observe that specimens killed in North America and Japan are somewhat smaller than those obtained
in Europe, but do not differ in colour or markings; and the trifling variation in size is not, in my opinion,
of sufficient importance to warrant their being regarded as more than races of the same species. In some
instances the white tippings of the primaries are absent, having been worn off or not yet assumed.
The food of the Wax-wing is o f a mixed ch a racte r; for doubtless in summer it mainly subsists on insects,
while in winter it feeds upon berries o f various kinds, particularly those of the hawthorn, the mountain
ash, the holly, and the ivy; and, from the numbers o f this bird which occasionally visit this country and
Central Europe, sometimes in flocks of twenties, fifties, or hundreds, the supply will scarcely be equal to the
demand. I have heard that in Germany and other parts o f the Continent it is frequently killed for the purpose
o f the tab le : Heaven save us from doing this in England! Return, fairy bird, to the land o f thy b irth ;
thou hast run a gauntlet dangerous to thy safety while here.
The Plate represents a male, a female, a nest, and five young birds, all of the natural size
M i l