_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.
There is so much variation in different specimens in regard to the red
wax-like appendages, that the Guatemalan specimen mentioned above can
hardly be considered as more than a very highly developed individual.
HABITS. The habits of the common Cedar-Bird are eminently nomadic,
and, so far as those of the Waxwing are known, correspond in all
respects, except in the more general and especially the more southern
distribution of the present species. They are found throughout North
America at least so far as the wooded country extends, and they breed
from Florida to the Red River country. They are a common bird in New
England, and would be much more so but that their fondness for
cherries and other small fruits, and their indifference to danger,
makes them an easy and frequent mark for destruction. Their
unpopularity has caused their numbers to be greatly reduced of late
years in the thickly settled portions of the country.
In Southern Texas Mr. Dresser found these birds very common during the
winter at San Antonio and Eagle Pass, but he observed none later than
the middle of April. They were seen in Tamaulipas, by Lieutenant
Couch, in March, and afterwards in April at New Leon, Mexico.
Sumichrast states that these birds are found everywhere and in great
abundance in winter throughout Vera Cruz. They are there known as the
_Chinito_, and are highly appreciated by the Mexican epicures. They
are equally abundant in northern parts of South America, and also
throughout Central America.
In Washington Territory and in Oregon Dr. Cooper speaks of them as
less common than in the Atlantic States, and he only met with a few,
in single pairs, in the summer. Townsend states that he found them in
Oregon, but Dr. Suckley never met with any west of the Rocky
Mountains.
In California Dr. Cooper has seen small flocks in winter, as far south
as San Diego, feeding on the mistletoe berries. He found their nests
at Fort Vancouver, and has no doubt that they also breed in various
parts of California.
Mr. Robert Kennicott states, among other memoranda of his route, that,
May 31, on an island in Winnipeg River, he saw a large flock of these
birds, numbering fifty or more.
With some irregularity as to their appearance, they are found
throughout the year in New England, their presence being usually
regulated by their food. They are, by preference, eaters of berries
and other vegetable food, except in spring and early summer, when they
eat insects almost exclusively, feeding upon the larvæ of the spanworm
and the canker-worm, and small caterpillars, and supplying these to
their young. They also feed their nestlings with various kinds of
berries and small fruits, both cultivated and wild. They do not nest
until late in June or early in July, and with so much irregularity
that I have found them sitting on their unhatched eggs as late as the
12th of October. They are a greedy bird, feeding voraciously where
they have an opportunity. They are very much attached to each other
and to their offspring. Once, when one had been taken in a net spread
over strawberries, its mate refused to leave it, suffered itself to be
taken by the hand, in its anxiety to free its mate, and when set at
liberty would not leave until its mate had also been released and
permitted to go with it. In the summer of 1870 a nestling, hardly half
fledged, fell from its nest, and was found injured by its fall, taken
into the house, and fed. Whenever exposed in its cage its parents came
about it, and supplied it with cherries and other fruit, unmindful of
the near presence of the family. The young bird lived, and became
perfectly tame, feeding from the hand, and preferring to be fed rather
than feed itself. Besides its low lisping call, this bird had a
regular faint attempt at a song of several low notes, uttered in so
low a tone that it would be almost inaudible at even a short distance.
It became perfectly contented in confinement, and appeared fond of
such members of the family as noticed it.
The noticeable feature of the Cedar-Bird, its crest, it has the power
to erect or depress at will. In confinement it generally keeps this
depressed, only erecting it when excited from any cause, such as
alarm, or desire to receive food.
Wilson states that in Pennsylvania they collect in August in large
flocks and retire to the mountains, feeding on the fruit of the
_Vaccinium uliginosum_, which grows there in great abundance. Later in
the season they descend to the lowlands to feed on the berries of the
sour-gum and the red-cedar. In confinement they are very fond of
apples, bread soaked in milk, and almost any kind of soft food. They
are also very fond of flies, and are expert flycatchers, snapping at
all that venture within the cage.
In their migrations their flight is graceful, easy, and continued, and
is performed at a considerable height.
It is unfortunate for the horticulturist that this bird has done so
much to merit his prejudices and reprobation, and that he does not
appreciate to the full the immense services it renders to him each
spring in the destruction of injurious insects. A flock of these birds
will, in a short space of time, devour an immense number of the larvæ
of the destructive canker-worms (_Phalænæ_) that infest the apples and
elms of Massachusetts, and, if permitted, would soon greatly reduce
their numbers. But these prejudices cannot be softened by their good
deeds, and the Cherry-Bird is still hunted and destroyed.
Their nests are usually constructed late in June or early in July, and
are placed in various positions, sometimes in a low bush or tree not
more than three or four feet from the ground, and rarely more than
twenty. Their nests are large and bulky, but strongly made of various
materials. Generally they build a strong external framework, six or
seven inches in diameter, composed of the ends of twigs, coarse stems
of vegetables, and grasses. Within this they build a compact,
well-made fabric of grasses, grapevine bark, and other finer
substances, lining the whole with leaves and fine root-fibres. The
cavity is large and deep for the bird. The parents are fourteen days
in incubating before the young are hatched out, and all this while are
remarkably silent, hardly uttering a sound, even their faintest
lisping note, when the nest is meddled with, though they evince great
anxiety by their fearless indifference to their own danger.
The eggs, usually five, sometimes six, in number, have a marked
resemblance to those of the Waxwing, but are smaller. Their
ground-color varies from a light slate-color to a deep shade of
stone-color, tinged with olive. These are marked with blotches of a
dark purplish-brown, almost black, lighter shades of a dark purple,
and penumbræ of faint purple, sometimes by themselves or surrounding
and continuing the darker spots. They vary in length from .80 to .88
of an inch, and average about .85. In breadth they are from .60 to .70
of an inch, and in shape they differ also from an oblong-oval to one
of a quite rounded form.
Nests of these birds from the Arctic regions are more elaborately
built and more warmly lined, being often largely made up of the fine
dark-colored lichens that cover the forest trees of those regions.