34 Bird Studies. 



The sexes are alike, and the young on leaving the nest are duller 

 than the old birds and have the lower parts streaked with brownish gray on 

 an obscure white ground. The birds are about seven inches long. 



Late in June or during the first week in July, a bulky nest is built in 

 some tree, generally near the house. It is made of grass, strips of bark, moss, 

 and sometimes mud, and is lined with fine grasses. From three to five pale 

 purplish gray eggs are laid. These are marked, with a varying degree of 

 distinctness, in spots of black and brown. They are about nine tenths of an 

 inch lone and somewhat more than three fifths of an inch broad. 



The birds are found throughout North America ; they breed from Vir- 

 ginia northward, and in the altitudes of the Alleghanies farther south to the 

 Carolinas. They winter from the northern border of the United States to 

 Northern South America. 



This is a bird like the Cedarbird in general appearance, but somewhat 



laroer, beine about eieht inches Ion"-. It has the same velvetv markings on 



_ , . ,,, chin and face, and even a more conspicuous crest. There is 

 Bohemian Wax- ,.,,,,,., , ■ , , 



wing ^ decidedly reddish or deep cmnamon tinge about the 



Ampeiis garrviius Linn, brown of the head, and the feathers below the tail are chest- 

 nut red. The feathers of the shoulders are tipped with white. The coral 

 red wax tips to the wing feathers, and often to the tail feathers, are very 

 conspicuous. The longer wing feathers are tipped with white or yellowish 

 on their outer edges. The belly is gray. 



The nest and eggs are similar to those of the Cedarbird, the eggs being 

 lareer. The Bohemian Waxwing- is almost entirely confined to the northern 

 parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It has been recorded as a rare or ac- 

 cidental visitor in the Eastern States, and with more or less regularity and 

 frequency in the upper Mississippi Valley. 



Early in April come the Barn Swallows, graceful and fleet, true aerial 



hunters, now flying low over field and meadow, now skimming the placid 



surface of pond or stream. They are veritable house 



Barn Swallow. , . , , . , . , • ^i • -.u 



cheiidon erythrogastra birds, making their nests and rearing their young with 



(Bodd.). Q^jj. chickens and cattle, almost as tame and quite as much 



at home. 



This is the Swallow with the deeply forked tail, with the upper parts, 



