Waxwlng WESTERN BIRDS 



GENUS BOMBYCILLA: BOHEMIAN 

 WAXWING. 



Bohemian Waxwing: Bombycilla gdrrula. 

 FAMILY— BOMB YCILLIDvE: WAXWINGS. 



This beautiful bird is a winter visitor, only, in certain 

 portions of the United States, it preferring the cold 

 north as its breeding home. However, in the winter time 

 they come south irregularly to eastern California, Colo- 

 rado, Kansas, southern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and Connecticut; casual in Arizona. 



They are about eight inches long and are garbed in a 

 soft fawn color which becomes grayer on rump and 

 flanks, and is washed with yellowish on the middle of 

 belly. The chin, lores, and a streak which extends 

 through the eyes and under the tall brown crest, are a 

 velvety black; the forehead, cheeks, and under tail 

 coverts are rufous; the upper tail coverts, wings and tail 

 are a slate gray, the latter tipped with a deep yellow 

 band, the former having some yellow and white mark- 

 ings, and red, wax-like, tips which have given the bird its 

 name. 



In habits it is quite like its cousin, the Cedar Wax- 

 wing, a well-known species of this country. The latter 

 bird differs in plumage in lacking the rufous forehead, 

 cheeks, and rump, and the yellow and white markings 

 on the wing. 



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