_Ampelis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. I, 1766, 297. (Type, _Lanius
garrulus_, L. Named Linnæus in 1735.)
GEN. CHAR. Tail even. Tertials and secondaries with horny appendages
like red sealing-wax. A well-developed soft crest.
A more elaborate diagnosis of this genus could be readily given (see
Rev. Am. Birds, 404), but the above characters, as entirely peculiar,
will serve to establish it.
Species.
COMMON CHARACTERS. A lengthened crest of soft blended feathers.
Colors, soft silky brownish becoming more vinaceous anteriorly,
and ashy posteriorly above. A black stripe on side of head, from
nasal feathers across lores through the eye and behind it beneath
crest, and a patch of the same on chin, with a white streak
between them, on side of lower jaw.
A. Wing variegated. Lower tail-coverts rufous. Crest much
developed. Forehead and side of head bright purplish-rufous.
Black patch covering whole throat, and sharply defined. No
white line between black of lore, etc., and brown of forehead.
Inner webs of primaries tipped narrowly with white.
_a._ Terminal band of tail red.
A. phœnicopterum.[79] Greater coverts tipped with red,
producing a band across the wing. No yellow on tips of
primaries. _Hab._ Japan and Eastern Siberia.
_b._ Terminal band of tail yellow.
A. garrulus. Secondaries and primary coverts tipped with
white, forming two broad short bands. Primaries with outer
webs tipped with yellow. _Hab._ Arctic regions of both
hemispheres; in winter south into northern United States,
and along Rocky Mountains as far as Fort Massachusetts, New
Mexico.
B. Wings unvariegated. Lower tail-coverts white. Crest
moderately developed. Forehead, etc., not different from crest.
Chin only black, this fading gradually into the brown of
throat. A white line between black of lore, etc., and brown of
forehead. Inner webs of primaries not tipped with white.
_a._ Terminal band of tail yellow.
A. cedrorum. Wing bluish-ashy. _Hab._ Whole of North
America, from 52° N., south (in winter?) to Guatemala;
Jamaica and Cuba in winter.
Ampelis garrulus, LINN.