360 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— PASSERES— OSCINES. 



into white on under tail-cuverts. Tliere is uo detnarcatiun of color whatever, and the tints 

 are scarcely susceptible <if adequate description. Frontlet, lores, and stripe through eye, 

 velvety-black ; chin the same, soon shading into color of 

 breast. A sharp white line on side of under jaw; a nar- 

 rower one bordering the black frontlet and lores ; lower 

 eyelid white. Quills of wings slate-gray, blackening at 

 ends, paler along edges of inner webs; without white or 

 yellow markings, as a rule ; inner quills tipped with red 

 horny appendages. Tail-feathers like primaries, but tipped 

 with yellow, and sometimes also showing red horny append- 

 ages. Bill plumbeous-black, sometimes paler at base be- 

 low; feet black. Length 6.50-7.2.5; extent 11.50-12.00; 

 wing 3.50-3.75; tail 2.25. Young: Brownish-gray, with 

 a slight olive shade ; paler below, whitening or becoming 

 slightly yellowish on belly ; everywhere streaked with dingy 

 whitish ; the markings most evident on breast and sides. 

 Fig. 21G.— Cedar-bird, nat. size. (Ad. AViugs and tail as in adults, but Usually lacking red ap- 

 nat. del. E. c.) pendages. The velvety-black and white on head imper- 



fectly defined. Bill pale at base below ; feet plumbeous. Specimens apparently mature and 

 full-feathered frequently lack the sealing-wax tips. These are normally confined to the sec- 

 ondaries, but occasionally appear on one or several primaries, and some or all rectrices (as in 

 fig. 214) ; a case is recorded in which an under tail-covert was similarly embellished. Both 

 sexes possess these ornaments, but as a rule they are best developed in the ^. The normal 

 period of their appearance is not known — it is probably not constant ; birds in the earliest 

 known plumage may possess one or more. They are possibly deciduous, independently of 

 moult of the feather. Their use is unknown. N. Am. at lai-ge to lat. 54° N. at least; breeds 

 indifferently throughout its N. Am. range, and migrates or rather wanders according to fo(jd- 

 supply ; winters in most of the U. S. ; goes in flocks nearly the whole year, and is especially 

 fond of resorting to cedar thickets to feed upon the berries; breeds late (June, July), in 

 orchards and groves ; nest in trees or bushes, in crotch of a bough or saddled on a limb ; eggs 

 3-6, livid or pale bluish, sharply and usually thickly marked with blackish surface spots and 

 others paler in the shell ; narrow and elongate, about 0.82 X 0.60. 



Subfamily PTILOCONATIN/E : Fly-snappers. 



Bill much as in the last sul)faniily, Init .slenderer for its Icngtli : nasal scale naked ; a few 

 short bristles about base t)f bill. Tarsus scutellate anteriorly, sometimes also on sides; about 

 as long as middle toe and claw; hind toe remarkably short. Wing not longer than tail, ninch 

 rounded, of 10 primaries; first short, less than half as long as 2d, w^hich is only about as 

 long as 8th; point of wing formed by 4th, 5th, and 6th or 3d quills. Tail long, nearly even, 

 with broad plane feathers (Phdinopepla) ; or much graduated, with tapering central feathers 

 {Ptihgonijs). Head conspicuously crested ; sexes (in our genus) dissimilar ; young not streaked 

 or spotted. The two leading genera of the subfamily are Phainojjepla and Ptilofjoinjs, the 

 latter with two strongly marked species of Mexico and Central America — P. cinereus and 

 P. {splienoteliis') caudatus. 



PHAINOPEP'LA. (Gr. (paflvos, x>liaeinos, shining; ttcVAos, 2'>eplos, a robe.) Shining Fly- 

 SNAPPERS. Bill somewhat as in Ampelis, but slenderer for its length; nostrils naked, scaled; 

 antia; bristly, reaching nostrils; a few short rictal bristles. Tarsus scutellate anteriorly, 

 slightly subdivided on sides below. Hind toe very short; middle toe and claw about as long 

 as tarsus; lateral toes a little unequal, outer the longer, reaching a little beyond base of middle 



