530 



PASSERirORMES : ARTAMIDAE 



CHAP. 



Fig. 118. — Waxwing. Ampdis garrulus. 

 {From Bird Life in Sirciirji. ) 



of grass and bark, is placed on firs or birches, and contains from 

 five to seven purplish-grey or drab eggs, with spots of black, 



brown, or lilac. The 

 smaller North Amer- 

 ican A. crdroriMR 

 lacks the yellow and 

 white on the wing ; 

 A. 2}hoenico2}te7'a, of 

 Japan, North China, 

 and East Siberia, 

 has red, but not 

 wax-like, tips to the 

 remiges and rectrices. 

 I) II /lis dominicus, 

 of San Domingo, is 

 dark brown, varied 

 with greenish and 

 yellow, the yellowish- 

 white lower surface 

 shewing broad brown 

 streaks. Several pairs often join their nests of twigs into a 

 circular mass. Phaenoptila melanoxantha, of the Costa Eican hill- 

 valleys, is glossy Islack, having an olive rump-band, and similarly 

 coloured under parts with yellow sides and grey middle. The 

 female is olive above with black crown. Pliaenopepla nitens, of 

 Mexico and the Southern United States, is bluish-black, with white 

 on the primaries and vent-region ; it has an erectile occipital crest. 

 The hen is dark grey, with brown abdomen and a different distri- 

 bution of white. This shy, active bird has the graceful movements 

 of a Flycatcher, with a habit of jerking the tail; the song is plaintive 

 or whistling ; the food consists of insects and fruit. The flat nest, 

 of fibres, grass, and down, contains from two to five greyish eggs, 

 speckled with brownish-black and neutral tints. Ptilogenys cinereus, 

 of the highlands of Central America, is plumbeous, with black re- 

 miges, black and white rectrices, loose broad lavender crest-plumes, 

 and yellow under tail-coverts and flanks ; the female is chiefly brown. 

 Fam. XV. Artamidae. — The " Wood-Swallows " constitute a 

 group of very doubtful position, ranging from the Australian to 

 the Indian Eegion and in one case (Pseudochelidon) to West 

 Africa. In the last-named the bill is broad, but elsewliere it is 



