WAX WINGS 



95 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING 



Bombycilla garrula {Liiiiuciis} 



\ II. L', XumlKr 1. 18 Sec Color Thitc So 



Other Names. — Black-throated Waxwiiis; ; Lapland 

 Waxwing; Silktail. 



General Description. — Length, 7".- inche'^. Pluni- 

 ase of perfectly blended colors, the general effect being 

 a soft drab. 



Color. — .^DfLTS IN Perfect Plumage: General color, 

 soft drab, becoming more wine-colored forward, more 

 grayish (pale grayish drab or drab-gray) on abdomen, 

 sides and flanks, the rump and upper tail-coverts, 

 nearly pure gray, forehead, region over eye, middle 

 portion of cheeks, and under tail-covcrts, cinnamon- 

 rufous: lores, streak behind the eyes, chin, and upper 

 throat velvety black ; lower abdomen and anal region, 

 pale yellowish or yellowish-white; secondaries, slate- 

 gray, darker on inner webs, their outer webs broadly 

 tipped with white and the shaft of each prolonged into 

 an expanded tear-shaped or linear flattened glossy 

 appendage resembling red sealing wax ; primary 

 coverts and primaries, blackish slate or slate-black, 

 narrowly edged with slate-gray, the tirst broadly tipped 



on lioth webs with white; primaries with end portion 

 oi outer web sometimes witli a narrow terminal margin 

 of yellow or yellow and white; tail, slate-gray becom- 

 ing darker toward end, broadly tipped with chrome- 

 yellow ; bill, black ; iris, brown ; legs and feet, black. 

 Imperfect i>lu.m.u;e : Similar to the perfect plumage, 

 but markings on terminal portion of outer webs of 

 primaries entirely white, red waxlike appendages to 

 secondaries absent, and terminal band of tail, much 

 paler yellow (straw-yellow or pale naples-yellow) and 

 often iTiuch narrower. 



Nest and Eggs.— Similar to Cedar Waxwing's. but 

 both larger. 



Distribution. — Circumpolar. Northern parts of 

 northern hemisphere, breeding in coniferous forests ; 

 southward in winter, in North .America (irregularly), 

 to Connecticut. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 

 Kansas, Colorado, northern California, etc.. casually to 

 .'\rizona ; breeding from Keewatin and .Athabasca to 

 .Alaska. 



If bird.^ have no conception of manners, how 

 does it happen that half a dozen Cedar Wax- 

 wings, sitting close together on a hnib — which 

 they often do — will pass a cherry along from 

 one to another, down to the end of the line 

 and back again, none of the birds making the 

 slightest attempt to eat even part of the fruit? 

 This little episode has been witnessed and re- 

 ported by more than one thorou,ghly responsible 

 observer of birds. What does it mean? If not 

 politeness and generositv, then what? Mr. For- 

 bush thinks the birds do it onlv when thev are 

 satiated: but how could he be sure of that condi- 

 tion? Obviously not unless he killed all of the 

 birds and examined their stomachs, which, of 

 course, nothing could induce him to do. It would 

 be a sorry way to prove courtesy and kindness, 

 and wouldn't prove anything after all. For 

 if the bird had no room for another cherry, 

 why didn't it simply drop the fruit instead of 

 passing it along? Let the bird psychologists 

 ponder these questions ; for the bird-lover the 

 answer is obvious. Besides, he will have observed 

 many other evidences of a gentle and afifectionate 

 disposition in these beautiful creatures. 



" Who can describe the marvelous beauty and 



elegance of this bird?" asks Mr. Forbnsh in an 



Educational Leaflet written for the National 



Association of .'\udubon Societies. " What other 



Vol. III.— 8 



/insj by R. Brurt- Horsfall 



BOHEMIAN WAXWING (! nat. size) 

 A bird of satiny plumage and elegance 



