CEDAR-BIRD. 19 



flark fawn color ; darkest on the back, and brightest on the front ; head 

 ornamented with a high pointed almost upright crest ; line from the 

 nostril over the eye to the hind head velvety black, bordered above with 

 a fine line of white, and another line of white passes from the lower 

 mandible ; chin black, gradually brightening into fawn color, the 

 feathers there lying extremely close ; bill black, upper mandible nearly 

 triangular at the base, without bristles, short, rounding at the point, 

 where it is deeply notched ; the lower scolloped at the tip and turning 

 up ; tongue, as in the rest of the genus, broad, thin, cartilaginous, and 

 lacerated at the end; belly yellow; vent white; wings deep slate, except 

 the two secondaries next the body, wliose exterior vanes are of a fawn 

 color, and interior ones white ; forming two whitish strips there, which 

 are very conspicuous ; rump and tail coverts pale light blue, tail the 

 same, gradually deepening into black, and tipped for half an inch with 

 rich yellow. Six or seven, and sometimes the whole nine, secondary 

 feathers of the wings, are ornamented at the tips with small red oblong 

 appendages, resembling red sealing-wax ; these appear to be a prolonga- 

 tion of the shafts, and to be intended for preserving the ends, and conse- 

 quently the vanes, of the quills from being broken and worn away, by the 

 almost continual fluttering of the bird among thick branches of the cedar. 

 The feathers of those birds which are without these appendages are uni- 

 formly found ragged on the edges ; but smooth and perfect in those 

 on whom the marks are full and numerous. These singular marks have 

 been usually considered as belonging to the male alone, from the circum- 

 stance, perhaps, of finding female birds without them. They are, how- 

 ever, common to both male and female. Six of the latter are now lying 

 before me, each with large and numerous clusters of eggs, and having 

 the waxen appendages in full perfection. The young birds do not receive 

 them until the second fall, when, in moulting time, they may be seen 

 fully formed, as the feather is developed from its sheath. I have once 

 or twice found a solitary one on the extremity of one of the tail feathers. 

 The eye is of a dark blood color ; the legs and claws black ; the inside 

 of the mouth orange ; gap wide ; and the gullet capable of such disten- 

 tion as often to contain twelve or fifteen cedar berries, and serving as a 

 kind of craw to prepare them for digestion. No wonder then that this 

 gluttonous bird, with such a mass of food almost continually in his 

 throat, should want both the inclination and powers for vocal melody, 

 which would seem to belong to those only of less gross and voracious 

 habits. The chief difference in the plumage of the male and female 

 consists in the dullness of the tints of the latter, the inferior appearance 

 of the crest, and the narrowness of the yellow bar on the tip of the tail. 



Though I do not flatter myself with being able to remove that preju- 

 dice from the minds of foreigners, which has made them lock on this 



Vol. II.— 4 



