BOMBYCILLA. 



There is thus no need for the same extent of north- 

 ward and southward migration on the part of any of 

 the forest birds of America as there is in those of the 

 eastern continent ; and in the case of the wax-wings, 

 which seem tempered to much range of climate, the 

 necessity of migration upon a meridian is almost 

 entirely removed, by the abundance which they find 

 in the berries of those junipers in the winter, and very 

 early part of the spring, and in the hill berries, over 

 a very considerable extent of latitude (over the whole 

 range, indeed), as t!ic season advances. Accordingly, 

 the wax-wings there are found all the year in nearly 

 the same latitude?, only they are among the junipers 

 of the swamps when the berries of these are ripe ; 

 and when this supply fails they are forced to range 

 in quest of other food. 



The early part of the season, which is the time of 

 plenty and of song with the birds of the deciduous 

 groves, is with these wax-wings the season of want, 

 or, at all events, of penury. By that time the berries 

 of the junipers, which afforded so abundant a supply 

 in winter and early in spring, begin to be exhausted, 

 and the few that remain are dry and shrivelled, and 

 contain little nourishment. The birds are in con- 

 sequence obliged to make out their subsistence with 

 insect food, and the insects which they eat are said 

 to be beetles ; but that species of food does not 

 appear to be very congenial to them, as they are 

 lean and in bad condition at those times when they 

 resort to it ; and it is not till the early berries are 

 ripe on the hills, and the early cherries, and other 

 small pulpy fruits in the orchards, that they begin to 

 disperse over the country, and commence the grand 

 labour of the year. 



According to Wilson, than whom there have been 

 few observers of wild nature more true in all the 

 minutiffi, or more graphically delightful in the general 

 effect, these birds are very lean and low-spirited in 

 May, the period when most of the tenants of the 

 groves are in the very strength of their energy and 

 the fulness of their song. In June their favourite 

 forests begin to ripen, they fatten apace, and before 

 the middle of that month the building of the nest is 

 begun. The nest is placed in the fork of a tree, 

 wholly composed of vegetable matter, coarse grass on 

 the outside, and finer within, and it is large for the 

 size of the bird. The eggs are four, of a dull bluish 

 white, tapering much toward the small end. The 

 greater part of it is dropped over with small blackish 

 spots, but there are some purple blotches on and near 

 the thick ends. The incubation is understood to last 

 for about twenty-one days, so that the young break 

 the shell about the end of June. They are fed at the 

 first upon insects and larvae, but afterwards upon 

 leaves and succulent fruits. 



This midsummer dispersion of these birds cannot 

 be considered as a migration, because some of them 

 remain in the near vicinity of the houses, and also in 

 the cedars on the swamps, which still afford them 

 sufficient concealment for their nests, thpugh not 

 food ; but there are many insects in those places for 

 the young in their early stage, and a little later there 

 are generally berries on the margin of the swamp. 

 On these low-lying places this species of food is 

 nearly exhausted by the time that the bilberries, and 

 other succulent fruits on the hills, are ripe. The 

 birds, with their broody retire to those mountain 

 pastures about the end of July or the beginning of 

 August ; and by the end of September their harvest 



on the hills is about over, and they return to the low 

 grounds, the tree berries on which are then beginning; 

 to get ripe ; on their return they assemble in small 

 packs, but they are never found in such clouds as the 

 common wax-wings are. 



Thus, though these birds occupy a more southerly 

 latitude than the wax-wings of the eastern continent, 

 and one which is very different in its climate and 

 vegetation, there is, making allowance for these 

 differences, no inconsiderable resemblance in the 

 habits of the two species ; so that, from the known 

 history of the one, we may, in part at least, infer the 

 unknown part of the history of the other with regard 

 to time and manner of nesting, number of eggs, and 

 various other particulars. The fact of the eastern 

 ones being more discursive in the winter months 

 obviously depends on geographical causes the depth 

 of the snow sometimes cutting them off from all 

 supply of food in their northern haunt*, which is not 

 the case in the cedar (juniper) swamps of the central 

 latitudes of North America. 



In the size, the wings, and the colours of the two 

 species, there are considerable differences. The 

 American bird is by much the smaller of the two, 

 and it is less powerfully winged than the other. This 

 may be inferred from the different characters of the 

 places in which they reside, and the necessity which 

 the eastern one is under of ranging to greater distances 

 in severe weather. But the two species agree with 

 each other, and differ from the chatterers (colinga), 

 with which they have been confounded, as being very 

 silent birds, so much so, that the American species, 

 which is the one of which anything is known during 

 the pairing time, does not sing or make any more 

 noise then than at any other season. The following 

 is the substance of Wilson's description of the Ame- 

 rican bird : 



" Length, seven inches ; extent of the wings, 

 eleven ; head, neck, breast, upper part of the back, 

 and wing coverts, dark fawn darkest on the back 

 and lightest on the forehead ; head with an upright 

 pointed crest ; line from the nostril over the eye to 

 the head, velvet black, with a white line on its upper 

 margin, and another extending from the lower man- 

 dible ; the chin black, passing gradually into fawn, 

 and the feathers remarkably close ; wings deep slate 

 colour, except the two secondaries next the body, 

 which have their exterior webs fawn, and their inner 

 ones white, six or seven, and sometimes the whole 

 nine secondaries, with the enlarged wax-like append- 

 ages at the ends of their shafts. These do not appear 

 on the young birds till the second autumn ; they are 

 common to males and females, though generally less 

 numerous on the latter; and there are instances of 

 their being on the ends of tail feathers also. The 

 rump and tail coverts are pale blue, and the basal 

 portion of the tail feathers is the same, but on these 

 it passes into deep black, which is terminated by 

 about half an inch of bright yellow at the tips. The 

 belly and vent feathers are white. The bill is black, 

 the upper mandible triangular at the base, rounded 

 toward the tip, slightly bent there, and deeply 

 notched ; and the upper one is scalloped and slightly 

 turned up. The inside of the eape (which, as well as 

 the gullet, is wide) is orange, the irides are dark red, 

 and the feet and claws black. The sexual difference 

 in colour is : the tints of the female paler, the yellow 

 on the tip of the tail not so broad, and the crest on 

 the head less produced and elevated." 

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