WAX WINGS 
337 
about an octave in all, and lasting about five seconds. This may be repeated 
a hundred times or more with only a few seconds’ interval between. Some- 
times it keeps steadily at it for twenty minutes, then it comes to earth in a 
straight dive like a falling stone and vanishes from sight in the short grassy 
covering of the prairie. It has much the sound of a very distant Wilson’s 
Thrush song, but is longer, less rich, and silver rather than golden in tone. 
Some say this flight song is the equal of, or even superior to, that of the 
famous skylark of Europe. Needless to say these are not Europeans but 
North Americans who have earnestly tried to be impartial. Born English- 
men are just as emphatic the other way, which all goes to illustrate how 
much early associations and traditions mingle with our enjoyments, and 
that the native-born hears in familiar bird songs that which the expatriate 
can rarely appreciate in full. To those born to them the bagpipes make 
satisfying and inspiring music, and in those who were raised to them, the 
soft warble of the bluebird, the monotonous recitative of the robin, and 
even the thin wiry song of Sprague’s Pipit coming down from the clouds 
on the sere, broad prairies, touch a chord that may not be stirred by the 
most glorious foreign songsters of the avian chorus. 
FAMILY BOMBYCILLIDAE. WAXWINGS 
The waxwings are striking birds, distributed over the northern parts 
of both the New and Old Worlds. They are represented in America by two 
species, so nearly alike and so well characterized in form and colour that 
family description here is unnecessary. There is remarkably little seasonal 
or sex variation and Figure 421 designates them plainly. The shafts of the 
secondaries and sometimes those of the tail are enlarged at the tips into 
brilliantly coloured appendages having a close resemblance to bits of 
red sealing-wax. 
Figure 421 
Family details of Waxwings. 
618. Bohemian Waxwing, wandering chatterer, le jaseur de bohUime. 
Bombycilla garrula. L, 8. Plate TXI A. Almost exactly similar in form and colour to 
the Cedar Waxwing, but larger, the secondaries are tipped with white and most of the 
primaries with white or yellow or both; there is likewise a small white wing-bar. The 
undertail-eoverts are chestnut and the abdomen greyish without the yellow suffusion. 
Distinctions. No further distinctions are necessary; the Cedar Waxwing is the only 
species with which it can be confused. 
Field Marks. Their trim figures and conspicuous crests easily identify the waxwings 
The white or yellow on the wings and the chestnut undertail-coverts are the best specific 
field marks. 
Nesting. In trees, in nest of twigs, roots, moss, etc. 
