THE CEDAR-BIRD. 265 



This species, with the general appearance of the Cedar-bird, is readily distin- 

 guished by its superior size, much larger crest, black chin and throat, instead of 

 chin alone, brownish-chestnut under tail coverts, instead of white, and the white 

 marks on the wing not found at all in the other. In the closed wing, the white on 

 the ends of the primaries forms a continuous narrow stripe nearly parallel with the 

 outer edge of the wing. 



THIS bird is an extremely rare winter visitor in New 

 England, appearing only in severe seasons. It is seen 

 in small flocks of perhaps six or eight individuals, usually 

 in groves of cedars or Virginia junipers, where it feeds on 

 the small blue berries or seeds that are found on those trees. 

 This species breeds in the most northern portions of the 

 continent. 



AMPELIS CEDRORUM Baird. 



The Cedar-bird; Cherry-bird. V/ 



Ampelis yarrulus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat, I. (1T66) 297. 



Bombydlla Carolinensis, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 227; V. 494. 



Ampelis Americana, Wilson. Am. Orn., I. (1808) 107. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Head crested ; general color reddish-olive, passing anteriorly on the neck, head, 

 and breast into purplish-cinnamon, posteriorly on the upper parts into ash, on the 

 lower into yellow ; under tail coverts white ; chin dark sooty-black, fading insensibly 

 into the ground-color on the throat ; forehead, loral region, space below the eye, and 

 a line above it on the side of the head, intense black ; quills and tail dark-plumbeous, 

 passing behind into dusky; the tail tipped with yellow; the primaries, except the 

 first, margined with hoary ; a short maxillary stripe, a narrow crescent on the infero- 

 posterior quarter of the eye, white ; secondaries with horny tips, like red sealing-wax. 



Length, seven and twenty-five one-hundredths inches ; wing, four and five one- 

 hundredths ; tail, two and sixty one-hundredths inches. 



Hdb. North America generally, south to Guatemala. 



This very common and well-known bird is a summer 

 inhabitant of all New England. It remains in the southern 

 districts through the winter, but usually arrives, in flocks 

 of twenty or thirty, as early as the first or second week 

 in March. About the middle of May, these flocks are 

 divided into smaller ones, and these soon into pairs, 

 which commence building about the second week in June. 

 The nest is placed in the midst of twigs on a horizontal 



