CEDAR-BIRD. 197 



the other materials. As it is picked cotton, it 

 must be a bit stolen from some house or yard, 

 not plucked by the bird from the capsule. The 

 eggs, commonly three in number, are delicately 

 white, with a few small red-brown spots, thinly 

 scattered over the surface, sometimes very minute 

 and few. Their form is a somewhat pointed oval, 

 measuring -j^ inch, by rather less than . 



FAM. AMPELID.E. (The Chatterers.) 



CEDAR-BIRD. 

 Ampelis Carolinensis. 



Bombycilla Carolinensis^ BRISS. Aud. pi. 43. 

 Ampelis Americana, WILS. 



Bombycilla cedrorum^ VIEILL. 



FOR the history of this elegant bird, which has 

 never fallen under my notice in Jamaica, I refer 

 to the American ornithologists. My reason for 

 noticing it here, is the following note of Mr. Hill's. 



" In severe winters on the continent, we have 

 been visited by that American species of the Wax- 

 wing usually called the Cedar-bird. I have been 

 informed that in the Christmas of 1836, several 

 in a flock were seen about the cashaw-trees of 

 Spanish town. Nothing is known of their habits 

 with us, except that they were shy, and scudded 

 about, a dozen or twenty together, and very pro- 



