342 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



Family AMPELID^. Waxwings, etc. 



Subfamily AMPELIN^. Waxwings. 



Genus AMPELIS Linn^us. 



AMPELIS GARRULUS (Linn.). 



251. Bohemian Waxwing. (618) 



General color, brownish-ash, shading insensibly from the clear ash of the 

 tail and its upper coverts and rump into a reddish-tinged ash anteriorly, this 

 peculiar tint heightening on the headj especially on the forehead and sides of 

 the head, into orange-brown. A narrow frontal line, and broader bar through 

 the eye, with the chin and throat sooty-black, not sharply bordered with 

 white ; no yellowish on belly ; under tail coverts, orange-brown or chestnut ; 

 tail, ash, deepening to blackish-ash towards the end, broadly tipped with rich 

 yellow ; wings, ashy-blackish ; primaries tipped (chiefly on the outer webs) 

 with sharp spaces of yeUow or white, or both ; secondaries with white spaces 

 at the ends of the outer webs, the shafts usually ending with enlarged, homy, 

 red appendages ; primary coverts, tipped with white ; bill, blackish-plumbeous, 

 often paler at base below ; feet, black ; sexes alike. Length, 7 or 8 inches ; 

 wing, about 4J ; tail, 2i. 



Has. — Northern parts of the northern hemisphere ; in North America, 

 south, in winter, irregularly, to the Northern United States. 



Nest and eggs, similar to those of the cedar bird. 



This handsome, eccentric, garrulous wanderer is common to the 

 high latitudes of both continents, often appearing unexpectedly in 

 very large flocks, and disappearing quite as mysteriously, not to be 

 seen again for many years in succession. 



The Ontario records are mostly of small flocks which occasionally 

 visit us during the winter, and feed on the berries of the red cedar 

 or the mountain ash. Sometimes they move by themselves, some- 

 times in company with the Pine Grosbeaks ; the Waxwings taking 

 the pulpy part of the berries and the Grosbeaks preferring the hard 

 seeds. The nest of this species was found by Mr Kennicott on the 

 Yukon, and by Mr. Maofarlane on the Anderson River, but when 

 we read the accounts of the vast flocks which have been seen by 

 travellers, we have to admit that it is little we know of their summer 

 haunts and homes. 



I have always had a great admiration for these northern strangers, 

 as they appear from time to time during the winter, but those I 

 had captured became insignificant when compared with a few adult 

 .specimens sent to me by Mr. Allan Brooks from British Columbia, 



