530 



PASSERIFORMES : ARTAMIDAE 



CHAP. 



of grass and bark, is placed on firs or birches, and contains from 

 five to seven purplish-grej or drab eggs, with spots of black, 



brown, or lilac. The 

 smaller North Amer- 

 ican A. cedrorum 

 lacks the yellow and 

 white on the wing ; 

 A. phoenicoptera, of 

 Japan, North China, 

 and East Siberia, 

 has red, but not 

 wax-like, ti})S to the 

 remiges and rectrices. 

 Did us dominicus, 

 of San Domingo, is 

 dark brown, varied 

 with greenish and 

 yellow, the yellowish- 

 white lower surface 

 shewing broad brown 



Fig. 118. Waxwing. Ampelis garrulas. x 

 (From Bird Life in Sicedcn.) 



streaks. Several pairs often join their nests of twigs into a 

 circular mass. Phaenoptila melanoxcmtha, of the Costa Eican hill- 

 valleys, is glossy black, having an olive rump-band, and similarly 

 coloured under parts with yellow sides and grey middle. The 

 female is olive above with black crown. Fhaenopepla nitens, of 

 Mexico and the Southern United States, is bluish-black, with wdiite 

 on the primaries and vent-region ; it has an erectile occipital crest. 

 The hen is dark grey, with brown abdomen and a different distri- 

 bution of white. This shy, active bird has the graceful movements 

 of a Flycatcher, with a habit of jerking the tail; the song is plaintive 

 or whistlintv ; the food consists of insects and fruit. The fiat nest, 

 of fibres, grass, and down, contains from two to five greyish eggs, 

 speckled with brownish-black and neutral tints; Ptilogenys cinereus, 

 of the highlands of Central America, is plumbeous, with black re- 

 miges, black and white rectrices, loose broad lavender crest-plumes, 

 and yellow under tail-coverts and fianks ; the female is chiefly brown. 

 Fam. XV. Artamidae. The " Wood-Swallows " constitute a 

 group of very doubtful position, ranging from the Australian to 

 the Indian Eegion and in one case (Fseudochelidon) to "West 

 Africa. In tlie last-named the bill is broad, but elsewhere it is 



