284 THE BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 



No. 135. 

 BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 



A. O. U. No. 618. Ampelis garrulus Linn. 



Description. — Adults: A conspicuous crest; body plumage soft, grayish- 

 brown or fawn-color, shading by insensible degrees between the several parts, 

 back darker, passing into bright cinnamon-rufous on forehead and crown, and 

 through dark ash of rump and upper tail-coverts into black of tail; tips of tail 

 feathers abruptly yellow (gamboge) ; breast with a vinaceous cast, passing into 

 cinnamon-rufous of cheeks ; a narrow frontal line passing through eye, and a short 

 throat-patch velvety black ; under tail-coverts deep cinnamon ; wings blackish- 

 ash, the tips of the primary coverts and the tips of the secondaries on outer webs, 

 white; tips of primaries on outer webs bright yellow, whitening outwardly; the 

 shafts of the rectrices produced into pecuHar flattened red "sealing-wax" tips; 

 bill and feet black. Length about 8.00 (203.2); wing 4.61 (117.1); tail 2.56 



(65.); bill .47(11.9)- 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size; grayish-brown coloration. As dis- 

 tinguished from the much more common Cedar-bird: belly not yellow; white 

 wing-bars ; under tail-covert's -cinnamon. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Like that of next species. Eggs, larger. 

 Av. size, .98 X .69 (24.9 X 17.5). 



General Range. — Northern portions of northern hemisphere. In North 

 America, south in winter irregularly to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, south- 

 ern Colorado, and northern California. Breeds north of United States ; also, pos- 

 sibly, in the mountains of the West. 



Range in Ohio.- — Irregular and rare in northern portion in winter. 



PERHAPS we shall never know just why these gentle Hyperboreans 

 spend their winters now in New England, now in Wisconsin, now in Wash- 

 ington, or throughout the northern tier of states at once. Their southward 

 movement is doubtless dictated by hunger, and the particular direction may be 

 determined in part at least by the prevailing winds. Years have passed since 

 any have been seen in Ohio, but they are likely to reappear any winter. Usu- 

 ally they appear in flocks of several hundred individuals, and it is asserted on 

 what seems to be good authority^ ; that millions were once seen on the Powder 

 River in Wyoming in flocks rivalling in extent those of the Wild Pigeons. 



The Northern Waxwing is a bird of unrivalled beauty, even surpassing 

 that of the Cedarbird, which it closely resembles in appearance and habits. 

 When with us it feeds by preference upon the berries of the mountain ash and 

 the red cedar, and more rarely upon persimmons. Its life history is as yet im- 

 perfectly known, altho it has been found breeding near the Yukon and Ander- 

 son Rivers. It has even been surmised to breed irregularly in the mountains 

 of the United States. 



1 See Coues' "Birds of the Northwest," p. 92. 



