having afforded opportunities of obtaining specimens, in some
one or other of various northern localities.
Although this bird is called the Bohemian Waxwing, it is
not more plentiful in Bohemia than it is in England. It is
in the central and southern parts of the European Continent,
as it is here, only an accidental visiter in winter. It is a rare
bird in France and Provence ; still more rare as far south as
Italy, and never crosses the Mediterranean Sea. The geographical
range of this bird east and west is, however, very
extensive. M. Temminck says it is an inhabitant of Japan,
a country which produces another species of this same genus.
Our bird is found in various northern parts of Asia, Europe,
and North America; this latter country also producing
another species of this genus; but these three are the only
species known ; and the European bird is the largest as well
as the finest of the three.
The country in which this bird produces its young is not
decidedly ascertained, and its habits in that season of the
year but imperfectly known. Frisch says it is a bird of
Tartary, where it breeds among rocks. The Prince of Mu-
signano says, “ It seems probable that their chief place of
abode is in the oriental parts of the old Continent; and, if
we may hazard an opinion, we should not be surprised if the
extensive and elevated table-land of Central Asia were found
to be their principal rendezvous, whence, like the Tartars in
former times, they make their irregular excursions.'” M.
Temminck, in the recently published Supplement to his
Manual, says the European Waxwing breeds in the eastern
parts of the North of Europe, and lives in the northern parts
of Asia. M. Nilsson, an ornithologist of Sweden, and the
author of a Fauna of Scandinavia, says, these birds pass the
summer in the arctic regions; they are seen on their passage
in Scania in November, and return in the spring. The
remarks of Dr. Richardson are as follows: “ This decant
bird has only lately been detected in America, having been
discovered in the spring of 1826, near the sources of the
Athabasca, or Elk River, by Mr. Drummond, and by myself
the same season, at Great Bear Lake, in latitude 65°.
In its autumn migration southwards, this bird must cross the
territory of the United States, if it does not actually winter
within i t ; but I have not heard of its having been hitherto
seen in America to the southward of the fifty-fifth parallel of
latitude. The mountainous nature of the country skirting
the Northern pacific Ocean being congenial to the habits of
this species, it is probably more generally diffused in New
Caledonia and the Russian American territories, than to the
eastward of the Rocky Mountain chain. It appears in 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 during
winter. It stays only for a few days ; and none of the Indians
of that quarter, with whom I conversed, had seen its
n e s t; but I have reason to believe that it retires in the
breeding season to the rugged and secluded mountain-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.” In a note, Dr. Richardson adds,
“ I observed a large flock, consisting of at least three or four
hundred individuals, 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 me to approach within
gunshot.”
Such are the accounts and opinions of observers and naturalists
who have written most recently on this bird. Of its
habits in this country, it may be briefly stated that it has
once appeared as early in the season as August. In that