A HISTOBT 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



Subfamily AM PELINiE, or WAXWINGS. 



The Waxwings are a very small subfamily, consisting of birds having the 

 wing of a Starling, the foot of a Shrike, and a bill intermediate between 

 that of a Shrike and a Swallow. They are probably most nearly allied to 

 the Shrikes and the Starlings : from the former they may at once be 

 distinguished by the minuteness of their bastard primary, their short 

 tarsus, and their nearly obsolete rictal bristles. Although they agree with 

 the Starlings in having their bastard primary very small and their second 

 primary long, combined with a short even tail and almost obsolete rictal 

 bristles, ornithologists are perhaps justified in placing them in a distinct 

 subfamily, in consequence of the shortness of their tarsus, their shorter, 

 wider, and notched beak, and the presence of small bristles which cover 

 the nostrils. The Waxwings only moult once in the year, in autumn. The 

 young in first plumage differ from their parents in many respects, and are 

 streaked on the underparts ; but this plumage is moulted during their first 

 autumn. 



The Ampelinse were in all probability originally an arctic group of 

 birds, of which only eight species are at present known to exist. One of 

 these is circumpolar, one is confined to Japan, whilst a third inhabits the 

 temperate portions of the Nearctic Region. The remaining five species 

 inhabit the Neotropical portion of North America ; only one species is 

 European. 



VOL. II. . B 



