62 



INSESSORES. 



possessed of no song, its only note being a low mo- 

 notonous lisp, scarcely audible at a distance of fifty 



paces. Yet to it is 

 given a plumage of 

 the most exquisitely 

 soft and silky tex- 

 ture, which lays so 

 close and smooth, 

 that the webbings 

 of each feather are 

 scarcely distinguish- 

 able. The head is 

 surmounted by an 

 ornamental crest, ca- 

 pable of being raised 

 or depressed at the 

 will of the bird. The 

 general color of the 

 plumage is a beau- 

 tiful fawn, lightest 

 upon the lower parts ; a band of velvety black mar- 

 gined above and below with white, passes from the 

 forehead over the eye toward the hinder part of the 

 head. The tail feathers are all broadly tipped with 

 bright yellow ; the shafts of each, together with those 

 of the secondary quills in the wings, being extended 

 in a short appendage very much resembling a small 

 piece of red sealing-wax. Those upon the tail are 

 seldom found perfect, as they are soon ■worn ofiF 

 among the thick foliage of the cedars. 



The Cedar-birds are very abundant in spring and 



Upper jig. — Red-eyed Vireo. 

 LowtT Jig. — Cedar-bird, 



