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264 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Famity BOMBYCILLIDZ®. Tue CHATTERERS. 
Primaries ten, the first very short or moderate, always less than half the second; 
bill short, broad, triangular, much depressed; gape opening nearly to the eyes, 
twice the length of the culmen; both mandibles notched, the upper with a tooth 
behind the notch; tarsi scutellate anteriorly, with indications also of scales inferiorly 
on the sides (except in Myiadestes?), shorter than the middle toe; outer lateral toe 
longest; toes unequally cleft; head generally. crested. 
Sub-Family Bompycituinz.—The Wax Wings. 
AMPELIS, Linnxvs. 
Ampelis, LInN&US, Syst. Nat. (1735). (Type A. garrulus.) 
Head with a broad, depressed crest; bill very broad, opening nearly to the eye; 
a series of short, velvety feathers at the base of the bill, with bristles directed for- 
wards and covering the nostrils, but none along the rictus; commissure straight; 
culmen and gonys curved, convex; both mandibles notched at tip; legs stout; tarsi 
shorter than the middle toe, scutellate anteriorly, and slightly on the lower half on 
the sides behind, slightly feathered above; hind toe shorter than the lateral, which 
are equal; wings very long, pointed, reaching almost to the tip of the nearly even 
tail; first primary so short as to be with difficulty discernible, the second quill 
longest; tips of secondary quills with horny appendages, like sealing-wax. 
AMPELIS GARRULUS. — Linnaeus. 
The Wax-wing; Bohemian Chatterer. 
“ Lanius garrulus, Linneus. Fauna Suecica, II. No. 82.” 
Ampelis garrulus, Linneeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 297. 
Bombycilla garrula. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 462. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Highly crested; general color brownish-ash, with a faint shade of reddish, 
especially anteriorly; the forehead, sides of the head, and under tail coverts, brown- 
ish-orange; the hinder parts purer ash; the region about the vent white; primaries 
and. tail feathers plumbeous black, especially towards the tips; the tail with a ter- 
minal band of yellow; a narrow frontal line passing backward and involving the 
eye, and extending above and behind it; chin and upper part of throat black; tips 
of the secondary coverts, and a spot on the end of the outer webs of all the quills, 
white; those on the inner primaries glossed with yellow; secondaries with red, horny 
tips, like sealing-wax; side of the lower jaw whitish. 
Length, seven and forty one-hundredths inches; wing, four and fifty one-hun- 
dredths inches; tail, three inches. 
