356 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



winter, and if flocks of Cedar waxwings were carefully scrutinized, I have 

 no doubt that occasional specimens of this species might, by reference 

 to plate 89, be accurately identified. 



Bombycilla cedrorum Vieillot 

 Cedar Waxwing 



Plate 89 



Bombycilla cedrorum Vieillot. Ois. Amer. Sept. 1807(1808). 1:88. pi. 57 

 Bombycilla car o linen sis DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 44, fig. 56 

 Bombycilla cedrorum A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 296. No. 619 



cedrorum, Lat., of the cedars 



Description. Head conspicuously crested; soft grayish brown changing 

 to bluish gray on the rump, wings and tail; tail with even terminal band 

 of yellow; eye masks, narrow band over the base of the bill and chin black; 

 abdomen yellow; under tail coverts whitish; bill black; feet leaden gray. 

 Old birds have the tips of tail feathers and tips of the secondaries ornamented 

 with scarlet waxlike appendages. 



Length 8 inches; extent 11. 5-12; wing 3.7; tail 2.4; bill .4; tarsus .66. 



Range. The Cedar waxwing inhabits North America, breeding from 

 Virginia, and southward in the mountains, northward through the boreal 

 zone. Only slightly migratory in habits. In New York it is a resident 

 of all portions of the State but is very irregular in distribution in the winter 

 time, wandering about wherever food is most plentiful, sometimes in large 

 flocks of 300 or 400. I have found it a common breeding species along the 

 swamps and streams of the Adirondacks, as well as throughout the orchards 

 and shade trees of the more densely populated portions of the State. 



It is one of our latest birds to nest, rarely beginning to build before 

 the middle or the third week in June. Fresh eggs may be found from 

 the 20th of June to the last of July. The nest is usually constructed in 

 an apple tree or shade tree of any kind, at a height of from 10 to 30 feet 

 from the ground. It resembles somewhat the nest of the Kingbird, con- 

 structed of grasses, cottony substances, leaves and strips of bark, lined 

 mostly with rootlets, mosses and other fine materials. The eggs are 4 to 

 5 in number, of a bluish gray or clayey brown color, rather thickly spotted 



