THE PINE LINNET. 41 



great scarlet clusters of persistent fruit, it is a constant source 

 of pleasure to the eye. But oh! see it now! fairly bending 

 under the weight of an immense flock of Wax-wings (Ampelis 

 garrulus). The whole tree-top seems alive with their flutter- 

 ing motion, as they keep up a soft but spirited chipper, half- 

 way between a whisper and a whistle, and gobble up the 

 berries with the gusto of extreme hunger. How beautiful 

 they are! The form is fine, and it has an elegant crest; gen- 

 eral color, a brownish drab, approaching ash-gray over the 

 back, and chestnut around the base of the lofty crest, and 

 around the margin of the deep black passing horizontally 

 across the forehead across and above the eyes and forming 

 a large patch on the throat; under tail coverts chestnut; 

 wings and tail blackish, the latter shading most beautifully 

 into dark ash toward the base; streak at the base of the 

 lower mandible and one under the eye; tips of primary wing 

 coverts and outer terminal web of the secondaries, white; 

 the latter with waxen appendages on the quills; the prima- 

 ries and the tail tipped with bright yellow, the former some- 

 times edged across the end with white. It is 7 8 inches 

 long. The size and form of this species, its elegant shading 

 of rich colors, and its bright and sharply-contrasted mark- 

 ings fairly entitle it to its European epithet, "The Lovely 

 Wax - wing! " This is an Arctic bird, both of the Old World 

 and the New, and appears here irregularly in flocks in win- 

 ter, sometimes moving southward to 35. Its nest and eggs, 

 a few of which have been found in the northern part of this 

 continent, are very similar to those of its near relative, the 

 Cedar Bird, only a little larger. 



THE PINE LINNET. 



One of these cold days, as I was riding by a pasture well 

 stocked with the remains of the thistle and golden-rod of 



