3510 Birds. 



" The length of our bird varies from l\ to full 8 inches, so that at 

 times it arrives at the full size of the European species. Head, neck, 

 breast, back, and wing-coverts of a brownish gray ; becoming darker 

 on the back, and brightest on the front and elevated crest. A deep 

 black line from the nostril over the eye to the hind-head, bordered 

 above by a slender line of white ; another line of the same colour 

 passing from the lower mandible. The chin black, gradually bright- 

 ening into grayish brown. The belly yellow ; vent white ; wings 

 dusky gray. Rump and tail-coverts dark ash-colour; tail of the same 

 colour deepening into dusky, and broadly tipped with yellow. Six or 

 seven, and sometimes the whole nine secondaries of the wings curi- 

 ously ornamented with small vermilion oblong appendages, resembling 

 sealing-wax, which are a prolongation of the shafts; occasionally these 

 processes also terminate some of the tail-feathers. Many of these 

 birds are destitute of these singular ornaments, which answer no eco- 

 nomical purpose whatever to the individual. The bill, legs, and claws 

 are black. Iris blood red. In the female the tints are duller." In 

 some individuals the " sealing-wax " appears in the nestling plumage. 

 There are two facts which should not be overlooked in noticing the 

 occurrence of this bird in England for the first time : — First, that 

 the individuals whose capture I have above recorded, were met with 

 in winter, at which season they should have been occupying a district 

 at least fourteen degrees further south ; but isothermal lines are surer 

 guides in determining the range of species than parallels of latitude, 

 and if in this case they be so considered, the birds were not far wrong. 

 Secondly, that the time of their capture coincided with that of the 

 great immigration of the European waxwing into England, (Zool. for 

 1850, passim). It was then ably shown by the Editor (Id. Pref. x.), 

 that the last-mentioned species migrated from east to west ; but in 

 the case of the cedar bird, as it is only found within the limits I have 

 above traced, the direction of its migration must have been exactly 

 opposite to that of the former. Whether satisfactory reasons can ever 

 be assigned for this strange contradiction in the manners and customs 

 of two birds, which would otherwise be deemed to be closely resem- 

 bling each other,* may be doubted, but at all events no harm can 



* So much alike are the two forms in outward appearance, that although the de- 

 claration of the independence of the American species was made at least as early as 

 Catesby's time, it was not recognized as distinct by all European naturalists, until 

 their favourite was found by Mr. Drummond, in 1826, at Great Bear Lake, unaltered 

 in size or plumage. The yellow under surface of the transatlantic bird is a sure mark 

 of distinction between them. 



