WAXWINGS 



93 



The Rough-wiiigfd Swallow is a much duller 

 looking bird than tiie Eiank Swallow, with which 

 it is apt to be confused. It is a slower flying 

 bird, and those who know it well can tell its 

 flight nianv rods away ; it has fewer twists 

 and zigzags and more gliding and sailing. The 

 bird is not nearly as common as the liani nv 

 Bank or Tree Swallows, though the area over 

 which it breeds extends from southern Canada 

 to central Mexico and from ocean to ocean. 

 Thev were formerly less common along the 

 northern limit of the range than now, at least 

 it is presumed thev have spread further north ; 

 even now southern New Jersey has more Rough- 

 wings than has northern Xew Jersey. Through 

 central and western New York there has been a 

 change in the numbers of this bird from acci- 

 dental or very rare to fairly common in certain 

 localities. 



Their nesting sites are sometimes like those of 

 the l'>ank Swallow, in sand hanks, though it is 

 rare for more than five or six pairs to be found 

 in such a colony. X'ery often, however, their 

 nests are under bridges or railway trestles or 

 rdong the under sides of jutting walls; they' 

 have also been found in empty pipes and in an 

 old Kingfisher's nest. 



One of its associates is the Phcebe. Their 

 nests are sometimes found verv close to each 

 other under the same bridge. While Phrebe 

 rushes out ujion its jirey from a watching 

 station. Rough-wing is up and down the stream 

 deliberately capturing all the insects that get in 

 his way. Occasionally he will rise into the air, 

 going over instead of under the bridge, and some- 

 times off for a short excursion across a pasture 

 or a meadow ; but soon he will be hack again 

 doing police duty up and down the stream. 



WAXWINGS AND SILKY FLYCATCHERS 



Order Passcrcs: suborder Osciiics; families Boiiibycillidcc and Ptilogonatidcc 





HE Waxwings are a small family belonging to the larger group of singing birds; 

 they are thus classified because they possess a vocal apparatus but they are 

 not singers in the common acceptation of that term. They are found only 

 in the northern hemisphere and there are but three species known. One 

 of these is peculiar to Japan and the neighboring parts of Asia, another to 

 North America, and a third is circumpolar. 



Their wings are rather long and pointed; their tails are less than two- 

 thirds as long as their wings, even or very slightly rounded, with the coverts 

 unusually long, especially the lower which reach nearly to the end of the tail; 

 the feathers of the lores are dense, soft, and velvet-like; there are no bristles 

 at the corners of the mouth, and the head has a long crest of soft blended 

 feathers. The plumage in general is soft and blended. 



The prevailing color of the head, neck, and body is a soft fawn hue or wine-color 

 changing to ashy on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The wings and tail are slaty, the 

 tail being sharplj' tipped with yellow or red preceded by blackish. Two of the species 

 have horny drop-shaped tips to the secondaries which resemble sealing wax. Some of the 

 birds lack these red tips and have other variations from the norinal coloration. Concerning 

 this imperfect plumage Dr. Ridgway says: " I am at a loss for a satisfactory name for 

 this plumage or an explanation of its true meaning. It is obviously quite independent of 

 sex; and that it has nothing to do with the age of the specimen, or at least is not evidence 

 of immature age, is almost equally certain. The only very young specimen of the present 

 species that I have seen has the remiges [quill feathers of wing] and rectrices [tail-feathers] 

 colored exactly as in the brightly colored plumage described above, except that the wax-like 

 appendages to the secondaries are smaller. As a rule young birds of B. ccdronim [Cedar 

 Waxwing] in the streaked plumage of the first summer lack the red appendages to the 

 secondaries, but sometimes they are present, and the tail-band is usually quite as bright 

 yellow as in adults; therefore it would seem that these two styles of plumage occur both 



