THE WAXWING 



sometimes uttered in a kind of trill. The bird appears to 

 breed in large isolated colonies in woods. The nest is a 

 bulky structure made of twigs, tree-moss, scraps of bark 

 and dry grass, lined with feathers. The five or six eggs 

 are greenish or lilac-grey in ground colour, blotched, 

 spotted, and speckled with blackish brown and grey. 



The adult male Waxwing has the general colour of the 

 upper parts, including a long full crest, vinaceous brown, 

 merging into chestnut on the forehead and slate-grey on 

 the rump and upper tail-coverts ; a band of black extends 

 from the forehead over the lores and behind the eye ; 

 the wings and tail are brownish black, the primaries 

 tipped with white, and yellow near the end of the outer 

 web ; the shafts of the secondaries are prolonged and 

 flattened into scarlet wax-like appendages ; the tail has a 

 broad yellow band across the end, and in some cases the 

 shafts are prolonged into similar wax-like processes. The 

 under parts are vinaceous brown, shading into white on 

 the abdomen and chestnut on the cheeks and under tail- 

 coverts ; there is a white streak from the base of the 

 lower mandible ; and the chin and throat are black. 

 Bill black ; tarsi and toes black ; irides brown. Length 

 7J inches. The female somewhat closely resembles the 

 male in colour, but her crest is smaller and the wax-like 

 appendages on the wings are fewer, and absent altogether 

 from the tail. The nestling is olive-brown above, marked 

 with greyish brown ; there is no black on the throat, 

 the under parts are yellowish white, with fulvous streaks, 

 and the wax-like processes are barely indicated. 



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