J2Q The Sparrow-like Birds 



note being a monotonous lisping sound barely audible at a short distance. They 

 feed on berries and fruits of various kinds as well as occasional insects which 

 they capture on the wing after the manner of Flycatchers. Their nests, which 

 are rather bulky affairs, are placed in trees and composed of small twigs, root- 

 lets, etc., lined with strips of bark, feathers, and other soft materials. The eggs, 

 usually three to five in number, are dull bluish or purplish gray, spotted and 

 dotted with dark brown, black, and purplish. The young have the under parts 

 streaked. 



Bohemian Waxwing. The largest and perhaps handsomest species is the 

 Bohemian Waxwing (Ampelis or Bombycilla ganulus], which is found through- 

 out the northern portions of the Northern Hemisphere, in America coming to 

 the northern borders of the United States in winter, but breeding far north- 

 ward. In the Atlantic States their coming is very irregular, but in the northern 

 Mississippi Valley and other northern states they are of more common occur- 

 rence. They feed particularly on berries of the mountain ash, and there is no 

 more beautiful sight than a tree filled with these birds, their soft plumage set 

 off by the bright red berries. Their nests and eggs long eluded discovery, 

 especially in North America, but they have been found near the Great Slave 

 Lake, and more recently Mr. Allen Brooks has obtained them in the caribou 

 district of the northern interior of British Columbia. He observed a colony 

 of five pairs and discovered four nests in proximity and all in pine trees at 

 a height of twenty-five feet or more. One nest in addition to a lining of finer 

 material had several green aspen leaves as an inner lining, no doubt to render 

 the eggs less conspicuous. 



The Cedar Waxwing, Cedar-bird, or Cherry-bird (A. cedrorum) is found 

 throughout the whole of temperate North America, ranging south in winter to 

 Guatemala and the West Indies. It is especially abundant in summer in the 

 New England and middle western states, roving about excepting during the 

 short nesting period in small flocks, and feeding on ripe cherries, both wild 

 and cultivated, cedar berries, and the berries of the black gum; they also feed 

 extensively on insects. They nest especially in fruit and shade trees, building 

 the usual bulky nest. 



Japanese Waxwing. The remaining species is the Japanese Waxwing 

 (A. japonicus) of Japan and the neighboring parts of Asia; it is the only species 

 without the sealing-wax-like tips to the secondaries, and has the tail tipped with 

 a beautiful rose-red instead of yellow. 



THE SILKY FLYCATCHERS 



(Family Ptilogonatidcz) 



This is also a small family, embracing but three genera and four or five 

 species, closely related to the Waxwings, with which they have usually been 

 included, but from which they differ in having short, rounded wings in which 

 the outermost primary is nearly half the length of the next, long, fan-shaped 



