THE CEDAR WAXWING. 285 



No. 126. 



CEDAR WAXWING. 



A. O. U. No. 619. Ampelis cedrorum (Vieill.). 



Synonyms. — Cedar-bird; Cherry-bird; Carolina Waxwing. 



Description. — Adults: A conspicuous crest; extreme forehead, lores, and 

 line through eye velvety-black; chin blackish, fading rapidly into the rich gray- 

 ish-brown of remaining fore-parts and head; a narrow whitish line bordering the 

 black on the forehead and the blackish of the chin ; back darker, shading through 

 ash of rump to blackish-ash of tail ; tail-feathers abruptly tipped with gamboge 

 yellow ; belly sordid yellow ; under tail-coverts white ; wings slaty-gray, pri- 

 maries narrowly edged with whitish ; secondaries and inner quills without white 

 markings, but bearing tips of red "sealing-wax" ; the tail-feathers are occasion- 

 ally found with the same curious, homy appendages; bill black; feet plumbeous. 

 Sexes alike, but considerable individual variation in number and size of waxen 

 tips. Young, streaked everywhere with whitish, and usually without red tips. 

 Iwength 6.50-7.50 (165.1-190.5) ; wing 3.70 (94.) ; tail 2.31 (58.7) ; bill .40 (10.2). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; soft grayish-brown plumage; crest; 

 red sealing-wax tips on secondaries ; belly yellow ; wings without white bars 

 or spots, as distinguished from preceding species. 



Nest, a bulky affair of leaves, grasses, bark-strips and trash, well lined with 

 rootlets and soft materials; placed in crotch or horizontally saddled on limb of 

 orchard or evergreen tree. Bggs, 3-6, dull grayish blue or putty-color, marked 

 sparingly with deep-set, rounded spots of umber or black. Av. size, .86 x .61 

 (2i.8x 15.5). 



General Range.— North America at large, from the Fur Countries south- 

 ward. In winter from the northern border of the United States south to the West 

 Indies and Costa Rica. Breeds from Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, etc., northward. 



Range in Ohio.— Of regular occurrence in the State, but irregular or var- 

 iable locally. Resident, but less common in winter. 



ONE does not care to commit himself in precise language upon the range 

 of the Cedar-bird, or to predict that it will be found at any given spot in a 

 given season. The fact is Cedar-birds are gypsies of the feathered kind. There 

 are always some of them about somewhere, but their comings and goings are 

 not according to any fixed law. A company of Cedar-birds may throng the 

 barren maples in your front yard some bleak day in December ; they may nest 

 in your orchard the following July; and you may not see them on your 

 premises again for years— unless you keep cherry trees. It must be confessed 

 (since the shade of the cherry tree is ever sacred to Truth) that the Cedar- 

 bird, or "Cherry-bird," has a single passion, a consuming desire for cherries. 

 But don't kill him for that. You like cherries yourself. All the more reason 

 then why you should be charitable toward a brother's weakness. Besides he 

 is so handsome, handsomer himself than a luscious cherry even. Feast your 



