The other links to the Waxwing/Sampel found in the Nab-L archives refer to VN’s commentary about James Joyce (not TSEliot), to nail parings and to the “jaseur”

JM: “I followed an old exchange in one of the internet discussion groups where the participants were chatting about "the overt and almost startling appearance of the Joycean artist paring his finger nails at the end of Bend Sinister".[  ] In Pale Fire the "pared nails" arise as worded by John Shade (lines 185-186)  "I stand before the window and I pare / My fingernails and vaguely am aware" - or, "And so I pare my nails, and muse, and hear" ( line 245).  And yet, when asked by Alfred Appel about this apparent allusion to Joyce, VN replied: "Neither Kinbote nor Shade, nor their maker, is answering Joyce in "Pale Fire".  Actually, I never liked  "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". I find it a feeble and garrulous book. The phrase you quote is an unpleasant coincidence." ("Strong Opinions", 70-71).

( NB: Joyce's words were: " The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails." In A Portrait of the Artist as a Youn Man, chap. V, page 245, Penguin Books, 1996)

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:39 PM https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;8f2fd6ee.0608

Penny McCarthy: “Jansy Mello cites VN in connection with nail-paring and Pale Fire[   ] Odd, then, that he should employ the word “garrulous”: the French for “waxwing” is “jaseur””

Undated: “Since waxwings are being recycled for discussion, I thought I should add a late doubt about my suggestion that VN’s dislike of James Joyce for being ‘garrulous’ offers a teasing link to the ‘jaseur borealis’. It might do, but it might also (or instead) offer a link to the jay, Latin ‘garrulus’. (JJ is garrulus garrulus). Penny.”