THE WAXWING 
sometimes uttered in a kind of trill. The bird appears,to 
breed in large isolated colonies in woods. ‘The nest is a 
bulky structure made of twigs, tree-moss, scraps of bark 
and dry grass, lined with feathers. ‘The five or six eggs 
are greenish or lilac-grey in ground colour, blotched, 
spotted, and speckled with blackish brown and grey. 
The adult male Waxwing has the general colour of the 
upper parts, including a long full crest, vinaceous brown, 
merging into chestnut on the forehead and slate-grey on 
the rump and upper tail-coverts ; a band of black extends 
from the forehead over the lores and behind the eye ; 
the wings and tail are brownish black, the primaries 
tipped with white, and yellow near the end of the outer 
web; the shafts of the secondaries are prolonged and 
flattened into scarlet wax-like appendages ; the tail has a 
broad yellow band across the end, and in some cases the 
shafts are prolonged into similar wax-like processes. ‘The 
under parts are vinaceous brown, shading into white on 
the abdomen and chestnut on the cheeks and under tail- 
coverts ; there is a white streak from the base of the 
lower mandible; and the chin and throat are black. 
Bill black ; tarsi and toes black; irides brown. Length 
7% inches. ‘The female somewhat closely resembles the 
male in colour, but her crest is smaller and the wax-like 
appendages on the wings are fewer, and absent altogether 
from the tail. ‘The nestling is olive-brown above, marked 
with greyish brown; there is no black on the throat, 
the under parts are yellowish white, with fulvous streaks, 
and the wax-like processes are barely indicated. 
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