. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Birds; Oiseaux. 358 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. the snares prepared for them by more artful and selfisli beings: Hence they are stigmatised as stupid, and, as they keep gene- rally close together, many are easily killed at once by a single discharge of a gun. 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. They are, howe
. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Birds; Oiseaux. 358 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. the snares prepared for them by more artful and selfisli beings: Hence they are stigmatised as stupid, and, as they keep gene- rally close together, many are easily killed at once by a single discharge of a gun. 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. They are, however, said to have a sweet and agieeable song in the time of breeding, though at others it is a mere whistle. The place of breeding, as we have inti- mated, is not known with any certainty, though they are said to build in high northern latitudes, preferring mountainous districts, and laying in the clefts of rocks, which, however, judging from analogy, we cannot believe. What can be the cause of their leaving their unknown abodes, of their wide migrations and extraoidinary irruptions, it is very difficult to determine. That they are not compelled to them by cold is well proved. Are they to be ascribed to necer,sity from excessive multiplication, as is the case with the small quadrupeds called lemmings, and even with man him- self in a savage state or in over-populous countries ? or shall we suppose that they are forced by local penury to seek else- where the food they cannot be supplied with at home? Much light may be thrown on the subject by caiefully observing their habits and migrations in America. The Bohemian chatterer being so well known, we shall here only give a descrii)tion of our best American specimen, which is a female shot on the 20th March 1825, on the Athabasca river, near the Rocky Mountains. The sexes hardly differ in plumage. Length, eight and a half inches ; extent, fifteen ; bill, three- quarters of an inch long, black, paler at the base of the under mandible
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