110 
CEDAR BIRD. 
on the chin, loose and tufted; the wings, black; and the 
markings of white and black on the sides of the head different 
from the American, which is as follows : — Length, seven 
inches, extent eleven inches ; head, neck, breast, upper part 
of the back and wing-coverts, a dark fawn colour, darkest on 
the back, and brightest on the front ; head, ornamented with 
a high pointed, almost upright, crest ; line from the nostril 
over the eye to the hind head, velvety black, bordered above 
with a fine line of white, and another line of white passes 
from the lower mandible ; chin, black, gradually brightening 
into fawn colour, the feathers there lying extremely close ; 
bill, black ; upper mandible nearly triangular at the base, 
without bristles, short, rounding at the point, where it is 
deeply notched ; the lower, scolloped at the tip, and turning 
up ; tongue, as in the rest of the genus, broad, thin, cartila- 
ginous, and lacerated at the end ; belly, yellow ; vent, white ; 
wings, deep slate, except the two secondaries next the body, 
whose exterior vanes are of a fawn colour, and interior ones, 
white ; forming two whitish strips there, which are very 
conspicuous ; rump and tail-coverts, pale light blue ; tail, the 
same, gradually deepening into black, and tipt for half an inch 
with rich yellow. Six or seven, and sometimes the whole ! : 
nine, secondary feathers of the wings are ornamented at the 
tips with small red oblong appendages, resembling red sealing- 
wax ; these appear to be a prolongation of the shafts, and to 
be intended for preserving the ends, and consequently the 
vanes, of the quills, from being broken and worn away by the 
almost continual fluttering of the bird among thick branches 
of the cedar. The feathers of those birds, which are without 
these appendages, are uniformly found ragged on the edges ; 
but smooth and perfect in those on whom the marks are full 
and numerous. These singular marks have been usually 
considered as belonging to the male alone, from the circum- 
stance, perhaps, of finding female birds without them. They 
are, however, common to both male and female. Six of the 
latter are now lying before me, each with large and numerous 
