The eggs of this bird, the gift of Mr. Wolley, measure an inch in length, and from .70 to .67 of an inch in breadth. Their ground-color varies from a light slate to a yellowish stone-color. They are marked, blotched, and dotted with spots of various hues and size. These are chiefly of a dark purple, at times approaching black. Mingled with these are markings of a yellowish-brown. Nearly all these spots are surrounded by a peculiar penumbra, or shading, such as forms so marked a feature in the eggs of the common Cedar-Bird.
The egg obtained by Kennicott on the Yukon is smaller than the European specimen, measuring .90 by .65 of an inch. Its ground is more of a greenish-slate or stone-color, and the spots are of a dark brown, with a deep violet shading.
SOUTHERN WAXWING; CEDAR-BIRD.
Ampelis garrulus, var. β, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 297. Bombycilla cedrorum, Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 88, pl. lvii.—Ib. Galerie Ois. I, 1834, 186, pl. cxviii.—Cab. Jour. IV, 1856, 3 (Cuba).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 328 (Cuba; rare). Ampelis cedrorum, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 299 (Cordova); 1858, 302 (Oaxaca; January); 1859, 364 (Xalapa; Cordova); 1864, 172 (City of Mexico).—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 13 (Guatemala).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 318; Rev. 407.—Taylor, Ibis, 1860, 111 (Honduras).—March, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. 1863, 294 (Jamaica).—Lord, Pr. R. Art. Inst. Woolwich, IV, 116 (British Columbia; nesting).—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. Rep. XII, II, 187 (Washington Ter.).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 129.—Samuels, Birds N. Eng. 265. Ampelis americana, Wils. Am. Orn. I, 1808, 107, pl. vii. Bombycilla americana, Jones, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 29 (winter).—Rich. Bombycilla carolinensis, Brisson, Orn. II, 1760, 337 (not binomial).—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 227, pl. xliii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 165, pl. ccxlv.—Wagler. Ampelis carolinensis, Gosse, Birds Jamaica, 1847, 197 (January).—Bon.
Sp. Char. Crest moderate. General color soft vinaceous-cinnamon, deepest anteriorly, more olivaceous on back, scapulars and wing-coverts, passing into pure light ash on the rump and upper tail-coverts, and into dingy yellow on flanks and abdomen. Lower tail-coverts white. Whole of the wing posterior to the greater coverts slaty-ash, almost black along end of inner webs of primaries, the outer webs of which are narrowly edged with hoary whitish. Tail slate passing into black terminally, tipped with a broad, sharply defined band of gamboge-yellow. A broad stripe of intense velvety-black on side of head, starting from nostril, passing across lore, and involving the eye, continued from it beneath the crest to the occiput; chin dull black, blending gradually into the brownish of the throat. A narrow white line across the forehead and along side of crown, between brown of crown and black of lore, etc., a narrow crescent on lower eyelid and a stripe between black of lore and that of the throat, white. Male with each secondary quill terminated by a bright red horny appendage to the shaft. Female with these very small and few in number, or entirely absent. Young. In general appearance similar to the adult female. Colors more grayish, with obsolete concealed whitish streaks on nape and down back, these stripes becoming very conspicuous on the sides and flanks and across breast. No black on chin. Rump grayish-brown; abdomen and flanks dingy whitish. No appendages to secondaries, and the yellow band across end of tail narrower than in adult.
Hab. Whole of North America as far north as Lake Winnipeg and Hudson’s Bay, south branch of Saskatchewan, latitude 52½° (Richardson); south to Guatemala; Jamaica and Cuba in winter.
A specimen from Guatemala (No. 50,455 ♂) is almost identical with examples from the United States, but differs in having a small spot of yellow at the tip of each primary; also there are red appendages on the tip of a few tail-feathers, as well as the longest feather of the lower tail-coverts. The colors, generally, are softer, the brown more purplish, and the ash finer and more bluish, than in a fine spring male from Washington, D. C.
A specimen (No. 53,396 ♂, Humboldt River, Nevada, September 10, 1868, C. King, R. Ridgway) from the Middle Province of the United States, differs considerably from any other in the collection. The colors are much paler, the anterior portions being almost ochraceous, the whole abdomen
nearly white. The white band across the forehead is very broad; the extreme point of the chin only black. Whether it is a representative of a style peculiar to the Great Basin, or merely a bleached individual, cannot be decided without additional specimens from the same region.