A MPELID.E — A MPELIN.E : WA X WIiXGS. 



369 



smooth, and silky. Tail tipped with yellow (or red, in the Japanese A. phcenicoptera). Sexes 

 alike; young different. Eggs spotted. Nest on trees. 



A. gar'rulus. (Lat. 5iam<Ze<s, a jay-bird : from its loquacity. Fig. 214.) Bohemian Wax- 

 wing. Black-throated Waxwing. Lapland VVaxwing. Silk-tail. Adult ^ ?: 

 General color brownish-ash, shading insensibly from the clear ash of the tail and its upper 

 coverts and rump into a reddish-tinged ash anteriorly, this peculiar tint heightening on head, 

 especially on forehead and sides of head, into orange-brown. A narrow frontal line, and 

 broader bar through eye, with chin and throat, sooty black, not or not sharply bordered with 

 white. No yellowish on belly. Under tail-coverts orange-brown or chestnut. Tail ash, 

 deepening to blackish-ash toward end, broadly tipped with rich yellow. Wings ashy-blackish ; 

 primaries tipped (chiefly on outer webs) with sharp spaces of yellow, or white, or both ; seconda- 

 ries with white spaces at ends of outer webs, the shafts usually ending with enlarged, homy, 

 red appendages. Primary coverts tipped with white. Bill blackish-plumbeous, often paler at 

 base below; feet black. Length 7.00-8.00 ; wing 4.50 ; tail 2.50. The sexes of this beauti- 

 ful bird are alike, and the principal variations, aside from mere shade of the body-color, con- 

 sist in the markings of the wings. In the finest specimens, the ends of the primary quills are 

 rich yellow, like the tips of the tail-feathers, forming broad firm spaces, in a continuous line 

 when the wing is closed, with narrower offsets going around the ends of the quills. In less 

 perfect specimens, these markings are simply white, are less firm, and do not appear on all 

 the quills. The secondaries may or may not show the red " sealing-wax '' tips, but in adult 

 birds at least probably always show white markings at the ends, and the same is the case 

 w'ith the primary coverts. These 

 wing-markings, with chestnut cris- 

 sum, and absence of yellowish on 

 belly, will always distinguish the 

 species from A. cedrornm, indepen- 

 dently of its much superior size. 

 Young : There is an early streaked 

 stage, like that of A. cedrorum. 

 Northern hemisphere, northerly, 

 wandering S. in vast troops at ir- 

 regular periods. In America, S. 

 regularly in winter to the northern 

 tier of States; in the Rocky Mts. 

 much farther; casually to about 35^. 

 Rare on the Pacific coast except in 

 Alaska. Breeds in high latitudes, 

 but down to the U. S. border in the 

 Ro(;ky Mts. Nesting substantially 

 the same as that of A. cedrorum, 

 and eggs only different in their 

 greater size — about 1.00 X 0.67. 

 A. oedro'rum. (Lat. cedrus, gen. 

 jil. cedrorum, the cedar. Figs. 215, 

 21(5.) Cedar Waxwing. Caro- 

 lina Waxwing. Canada Wax- 

 wing. Cedar-bird. Cherry-bihd. 

 The Polite Bird. Recollet. Adult ^ 9 : General color shading from clear pure ash on 

 upper tail-coverts and rump through olivaceous-cinnamon into a richer and somewhat purplish- 

 cinnamon on foreparts and head. On under parts, the color shades through yellowish on belly 



Fio. 215. — Cedar W 



