The Cedar Wax wing 
found breeding in this State. It is not to be supposed, however, that the 
Bohemian Waxwing is a regular breeder at any of the stations listed above. 
The Waxwings of both species are a law unto themselves, and their com¬ 
ings and goings and nestings (usually in small colonies) are subject to 
what we call caprice. 
No. 110 
Cedar Waxwing 
A. O. U. No. 619. Bombycilla cedrorum Vieillot. 
Synonyms.— Cedar-bird. Cherry-bird. Carolina Waxwing. Lesser 
Waxwing. 
Description. — Adults: A conspicuous crest; extreme forehead, lores, and line 
through eye velvety black; chin blackish, fading rapidly into the rich grayish brown 
(snuff-brown to buffy brown) of remaining foreparts and head; a narrow whitish line 
bordering the black on the forehead and the blackish of the chin; back darker, shading 
through ash of rump to blackish ash of tail;'tail-feathers abruptly tipped with gamboge 
yellow; belly sordid yellow; under tail-coverts white; wings slaty gray, primaries 
narrowly edged with whitish; secondaries and inner quills without abrupt white mark¬ 
ings, but obscurely whitish and grayish along exposed inner webs, and bearing tips 
of red “sealing wax”; the tail-feathers are occasionally found with the same curious, 
horny appendages. Bill black; feet plumbeous. Sexes alike, but considerable in¬ 
dividual variation in number and size of waxen tips. A very common “imperfect” 
plumage lacks the waxen tips altogether, and such lack is usually, though not always, 
correlated with an emphatic narrowing of the yellow terminal band of the tail. Young: 
Darker and duller,—olive-brown above and on breast and sides; throat pale to whitish 
and dark areas of underparts much broken up by whitish streaking; without waxen 
tips. Length 152.4-177.8 (6.00-7.00); wing 94 (3.70); tail 55 (2.17); bill 10.2 (.40). 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size; soft grayish brown plumage; crest; red 
sealing wax tips on secondaries; belly yellow; wings without white bars or spots, as 
distinguished from preceding species. 
Nesting. — Nest: (Desc. of California-taken specimens in M. C. O. coll.) 
Of twigs, fern-stems, grass, moss, string, hair, and especially gray “moss” (lichen) 
of the usnea type; placed 5 to 20 feet up in young fir or mountain lilac (Ceanothus). 
Eggs: 4 to 6, usually 4 or 5; dull bluish gray (pale smoke-gray, light mineral gray, 
or pale court gray, to pale olive-gray), spotted sharply and sparingly with purplish 
black Av. size 22.6 x 15.5 (.89 x .61). Season: Midsummer; one brood. Eureka 
dates fall between June 30 and August 4. 
General Range. —North America. Breeds chiefly in Transition and Canadian 
zones, from central British Columbia, southern Keewatin, northwestern Quebec, etc., 
south to northwestern California, northern New Mexico, northern Arkansas, and 
