114 



Tjluebird and English sparrow from their boxes in short order. Like many other 

 birds, the same pair often returns to the same nest year after year, finding their old 

 homes with unerring precision after migrations of thousands of miles. Like all 

 swallows, the present species is a great insect eater, destroying incalculable num- 

 bers, including many injurious species. They should be preserved in the interests 

 of farmers and fruit growers, not wantonly destroyed, though a tempting target to 

 the marksman. ^'■Needless taking of any life is a crime against Nature. We may 

 well pause at this, even if no spark of sentiment should kindle indignation at the 

 thought of cutting short such useful, bright and joyous life. Things both useful 

 and beautiful are not so common that we can afford to sacrifice them in vain. The 

 rowdy boys and all the crew of tramps and potters of the gun who shoot swallows 

 for sport may be seriously admonished that these birds are worth more to society 

 than their idle, vicious selves." {Dr. Coues.) 



FAMILY XIII. AMPELID^. 



{The Wax Wings.) 



Primaries lo; bill stout, triangular, depressed, decidedly notched and hooked, 

 with the gape wide. Nostrils overhung by membrane covered with bristly feath- 

 ers. Tarsus short, with the side plates more or less decided ; lateral toes nearly 

 equal. 



The sub-family, AmpelincE, Constitutes a single genus of three species. All are 

 crested, soft plumaged birds of a handsome common drab color; the ends of the 

 secondaries, and sometimes the tail feathers, are tipped with horny appendage, 

 looking like red sealing wax. The tail is short and square, much shorter than the 

 long wings and yellow tipped in our species. The Waxwings are migratory and 

 gregarious, eating insects and soft fruits. Their voices are weak and wheezy, and 

 they can scarcely be regarded as songsters. 



AMPELIS. Linnseus. Waxwings 



71. A. GARRULUS. (L.) Bohemian Waxwing. General color, silky ashy 

 brown, with a red tinge ; front and side of head with purplish cinnamon ; a black 

 band across forehead around head ; throat black ; crissum chestnut red ; two broad 

 white wing bars. L. yj^; W. 4^; T. 3. .A beautiful bird found in Northern 

 America, Europe and Asia. An irregular winter resident in the vicinity of Chicago, 

 sometimes in large flocks feeding upon the juniper berries near Lake Michigan. 



72. A. CEDRORUM. (Vieill.) Bd. Cedar Bird. Cherry Bird. Southern wax- 

 wing. Like the above, but smaller and less cinnamon tinged, chin black ; strip across 

 face black, bordered above by whitish ; belly yellowish ; crissum white ; no wing bars 

 L. 6^; W. 3^^; T. 2^. Common ; irregular migrant ; often in large flocks in winter 

 about cedar trees ; have seen them in January in flocks in Indianapolis. Not in good 

 favor with fruit growers, as they eat cherries and small fruits, but this is more than made 

 up by the insects they destroy, and, as Dr. Coues remarks, their indiscriminate 

 slaughter necessarily turns a well-poised balance in favor of insect pests, and by so 

 much against the true interests of agriculture. 



