A HISTOEY 



OP 



BRITISH BIRDS 



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i ; 



Subfamily AM PELIN^E, OR WAX WINGS. 



THE Waxwings are a very small subfamily, consisting of birds having the 

 wing of a Starling, the foot of a Shrike, and a bill intermediate between 

 that of a Shrike and a Swallow. They are probably most nearly allied to 

 the Shrikes and the Starlings : from the former they may at once be 

 listinguished by the minuteness of their bastard primary, their short 

 tarsus, and their nearly obsolete rictal bristles. Although they agree with 

 the Starlings in having their bastard primary very small and their second 

 primary long, combined with a short even tail and almost obsolete rictal 

 bristles, ornithologists are perhaps justified in placing them in a distinct 

 subfamily, in consequence of the shortness of their tarsus, their shorter, 

 wider, and notched beak, and the presence of small bristles which cover 

 ;he nostrils. The Waxwings only moult once in the year, in autumn. The 

 r oung in first plumage differ from their parents in many respects, and arc 

 itreaked on the underparts ; but this plumage is moulted during their first 

 -utumn. 



The Ampelinae were in all probability originally an arctic group of 

 birds, of which only eight species are at present known to exist. One of 

 * ese is circumpolar, one is confined to Japan, whilst a third inhabits the 



mpcrate portions of the Nearctic Region. The remaining five species 



habit the Neotropical portion of North America ; only one species is 



uropean. 



VOL. ii. ,, 



