142 CEDAR-BIRD, 



condary feathers of the wings, are ornamented at the tips with 

 small red oblong appendages, resembling red sealing-wax; these 

 appear to be a prolongation of the shafts, and to be intended for 

 preserving the ends, and consequently the vanes, of the quills 

 from being broken and worn away, by the almost continual flut- 

 tering of the bird among thick branches of the cedar. The feath- 

 ers 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 sin- 

 gular marks have been usually considered as belonging to the 

 male alone, from the circumstance, perhaps, of finding female 

 birds without them. They are, however, 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 ap- 

 pendages 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 colour; the legs and 

 claws black; the inside of the mouth orange; gap wide; and the 

 gullet capable of such distention 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 fe- 

 male consists in the dulness 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 

 prejudice from the minds of foreigners, which has made them 

 look on this bird, also, as a degenerate and not a distinct species 

 from their own; yet they must allow that the change has been 

 very great, very uniform, and universal, all over North Ameri- 

 ca, where I have never heard that the European species has been 



