. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE WAXEN CHATTERER. 32s llirds. It is also known by the name of the BOHEMIAN CHATTERER, the latter name being singularly inappropriate, as the bird is quite as rare in Bohemia as in Engand. It is a very gregarious bird, assembling in very large flocks, and congre- gating so closely together that great numbers have been killed at a single discharge of a gun. The long, flat, scarlet appendages to the wings are usually confined to the secondaries and tertiaries, at whose extremities they dangle as if they had been formed separately, and fastened to the fe
. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE WAXEN CHATTERER. 32s llirds. It is also known by the name of the BOHEMIAN CHATTERER, the latter name being singularly inappropriate, as the bird is quite as rare in Bohemia as in Engand. It is a very gregarious bird, assembling in very large flocks, and congre- gating so closely together that great numbers have been killed at a single discharge of a gun. The long, flat, scarlet appendages to the wings are usually confined to the secondaries and tertiaries, at whose extremities they dangle as if they had been formed separately, and fastened to the feathers as an after thought. Indeed they so precisely resemble red sealing-wax, that anyone on seeing the bird for the first time would probably suppose that a trick had been played upon him by some one who desired to tax his credulity to a very great BOHEMIAN WAXWING, OR WAXEN CHATTERER.—(^?»/f/w^a?rK/a.) To this country it only comes in the winter months, although there has been an example of its appearance as early as August. In its plumage the Bohemian Waxwing is a very pretty and striking bird being as notable for the silken softness of its feathers as for its pleasingly blended colours and the remarkable appendage from which it derives its popular name. The colouring of the bird is very varied, but may briefly be described as follows. The top of the head and crest are a light soft brown, warming into ruddy chestnut on the forehead. A well-defined band of passes over the upper base of the beak, and runs round the back of the head, developing the eyes on each side, and there is a patch of the same jetty hue on the chin. The general colour of the bird is grey-brown, the primary and secondary feathers of the wings and tail are black, tipped with yellow, the primary \\ ing-coverts are tipped with white, and the tertiaries are purplish. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability -
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
