FAMILY VIII. SERICATI, Illiger. GENUS XII.-BOMBYCILLA, VIEILL. 65. BOMBYCILLA CAROLINENSIS, BRISSON. AMPELIS AMERICANA, WILSON. — CEDAR BIRD. WILSON, PL. VII. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. THE plumage of these birds is of an exquisitely fine and silky texture, lying extremely smooth and glossy, Notwithstanding the name chatterers given to them, they are perhaps the most silent species we have; making only a feeble, lisping sound, chiefly as they rise or alight. They fly in compact bodies, of from twenty to fifty; and usually alight so close together on the same tree, that one half are frequently shot down at a time. In the months of July and August, they collect together in flocks, and retire to the hilly parts of the State, the Blue Mountains, and other collateral ridges of the Alleghany, to enjoy the fruit of the vaccinium uliginosum, whortleberries, which grow there in great abundance; whole mountains, for many miles, being almost entirely covered with them; and where, in the month of August, I have myself found the cedar birds numerous. In October they descend to the lower, cultivated parts of the country, to feed on the berries of the sour gum, and red cedar, of which last they are immoderately fond; and thirty or forty may sometimes be seen fluttering among the branches of one small cedar tree, plucking off the berries. They are also found as far south as Mexico, as appears from the accounts of Fernandez, Seba,* and others. Fernandez saw them near Tetzeuco, and calls them coquantotl; says they delight to dwell in the mountainous parts of the country; and that their flesh and song are both indifferent. Most of our epicures here are, however, of a different opinion, as to their palatableness; for, in the fall and beginning of summer, when they become very fat, they are in considerable esteem for the table; and great numbers are brought to the market of Philadelphia, where they are sold from twelve to twenty-five cents per dozen. During the whole winter and spring they are occasionally seen; and, about the 25th of May, appear in numerous parties, making great havoc among the early cherries, selecting the best and ripest of the fruit. Nor are they easily intimidated by the presence of Mr Scarecrow; for I have seen a flock deliberately regaling on the fruit of a loaded cherry tree, while on the same tree one of these guardian angels, and a very formidable one too, stretched his stiffened arms, and displayed his dangling legs, with all the pomposity of authority! At this time of the season most of our resident birds, and many of our summer visitants, are sitting, or have young; while, even on the 1st of June, the eggs in the ovary of the female cedar bird are no larger than mustard seed; and it is generally the 8th or 10th of that month before they begin to build. These last are curious circumstances, which it is difficult to account for, unless by supposing, that incubation is retarded by a scarcity of suitable food in spring, berries and other fruit being their usual fare. In May, before the cherries are ripe, they are lean, and little else is found in their stomachs than a few shrivelled cedar berries, the refuse of the former season, and a few fragments of beetles and other insects, which do not appear to be their common food; but in June, The figure of this bird, in Seba's voluminous work, is too wretched for criticism; it is there called "Oiseau Xomotl, d'Amerique, hupé." Seb. ii. p. 66, t. 65, fig. 5. + Hist. Av. Nov. Hisp. 55. while cherries and strawberries abound, they become extremely fat; and, about the 10th or 12th of that month, disperse over the country in pairs to breed; sometimes fixing on the cedar, but generally choosing the orchard for that purpose. The nest is large for the size of the bird, fixed in the forked or horizontal branch of an apple tree, ten or twelve feet from the ground; outwardly, and at bottom, is laid a mass of coarse dry stalks of grass, and the inside is lined wholly with very fine stalks of the same material. The eggs are three or four, of a dingy bluish white, thick at the great end, tapering suddenly, and becoming very narrow at the other; marked with small roundish spots of black of various sizes and shades; and the great end is of a pale dull purple tinge, marked likewise with touches of various shades of purple and black. About the last week in June the young are hatched, and are at first fed on insects and their larvæ ; but, as they advance in growth, on berries of various kinds. These facts I have myself been an eye witness to. The female, if disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a considerable distance; no notes of wailing or lamentation are heard from either parent, nor are they even seen, notwithstanding you are in the tree examining the nest and young. These nests are less frequently found than many others, owing, not only to the comparatively few numbers of the birds, but to the remarkable muteness of the species. The season of love, which makes almost every other small bird musical, has no such effect on them; for they continue, at that interesting period, as silent as before. This species is also found in Canada, where it is called recollet, probably, as Dr Latham supposes, from the colour and appearance of its crest resembling the hood of an order of friars of that denomination; it has also been met with by several of our voyagers on the northwest coast of America, and appears to have an extensive range. Almost all the ornithologists of Europe persist in considering this bird as a variety of the European chatterer, (a. garrulus,) with what justice or propriety a mere comparison of the two will determine: The European species is very nearly twice the cubic bulk of ours; has the whole lower parts of an uniform dark vinous bay; the tips of the wings streaked with lateral bars of yellow; the nostrils, covered with bristles ;* the feathers 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, cartilaginous, 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 * Turton. 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 circumstance, 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 clusters of eggs, and having the waxen appendages in full perfection. The young birds do not receive them until the second fall, when, in moulting time, they may be seen fully formed, as the feather is developed from its sheath. I have once or twice found a solitary one on the extremity of one of the tail feathers. The eye is of a dark blood colour; the legs and claws, black; the inside of the mouth, orange; gap, wide; and the gullet capable of such distension as often to contain twelve or fifteen cedar berries, and serving as a kind of craw to prepare them for digestion. No wonder, then, that this gluttonous bird, with such a mass of food almost continually in its throat, should want both the inclination and powers for vocal melody, that which would seem to belong to those only of less gross and voracious habits. The chief difference in the plumage of the male and female consists in the dulness of the tints of the latter, the inferior appearance of the crest, and the narrowness of the yellow bar on the tip of the tail. Though I do not flatter myself with being able to remove that prejudice from the minds of foreigners, which has made them look on this bird, also, as a degenerate and not a distinct species from their own; yet they must allow that the change has been very great, very uniform, and universal, all over North America, where I have never heard that the European species has been found; or, even if it were, this would only shew more clearly the specific difference of the |