70 CEDAR BIRD. 
on a. person’s approaching the place, will flirt about within a few feet, 
seeming greatly distressed.* : : 
The length of this species is five inches; extent, six and a quarter; 
the general color above is black, which covers the whole head and 
neck, and spreads on the upper part of the breast in a rounding form, 
where, as well'as on the head and neck, it is glossed with steel blue; 
sides of the breast below this, black; the inside of the wings, and 
upper half of the wing-quills, are of a fine aurora color; but the 
greater and lesser coverts of the wings, being black, conceal this; 
and the orange or aurora color appears only as a broad, transverse 
band across the wings; from thence to the tip, they are brownish ; 
the four middle feathers of the tail are black, the other eight of the 
same aurora color, and black towards the tips; belly and vent, white, 
slightly streaked with pale orange; legs, black; bill, of the true 
Muscicapa, form, triangular at the base, beset with long bristles, and 
notched nods the point. The female has not the rich aurora band across 
the wing; her back and crown are cinereous, inclining to olive; the 
white below is not so pure; lateral feathers of the tail and sides of 
the breast, grecnisi yellow; middle tail-feathers, dusky brown. The 
young males of a year old are almost exactly like the female, differing 
in these particulars, that they have a yellow band across the wings 
which the female has not, and the back is more’tinged with brown: 
the lateral tail-feathers are also yellow; middle ones, brownish black ; 
inside of the wings, yellow. On the third season, they receive their 
complete colors; and, as males of the second year, in nearly the dress 
of the female, are often seen in the woods, having the same notes as 
the full-plumaged male, it has given occasion to some people to assert 
that the females sing as well as the males; and others have taken 
them for another species. The fact, however, is as I have stated it. 
This bird is too little known by people in general to have any provin- 
cial name. 
CEDAR BIRD.—AMPELIS AMERICANA. — Fie. 25. 
anol Borealis Linn. Syst. i. 297, 1, 8. —Bombycilla Carolinensis, Brisson, ii. 
7, 1, Ad. 8vo. i. 251.—Chatterer of Carolina, Catesb. i. 46.— Arct. Zool. ii. 
No. 207. — Lath. Syn. iti. 93,1, a.— Edw. 242.— Cook’s Last Voyage, ii. 518. 
— Ellis’s Voyage, i. 13. — Peale’s Museum, No. 5608. 
BOMBYCILLA AMERICANA. — Swanson, 
Le jaseur du cédre, Bombycilla cedorum, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. pl. exviii. p. 186. — 
ombycilla Carolinensis, Bonap. Synop. p.59.— Bombycilla Americana, North. 
Zool. ii. p. 239. : 
_ Tue figure of the Cedar Bird which accompanies this description 
was drawn from a very beautiful specimen; and exhibits the form of 
* Mr. Audubon says, “‘ The nest is slight, composed of lichens and dried fibres, 
of rae weeds, or grape vines, nicely lined with soft, cotton materials.” — P. 203. 
—Ep. 
