Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, volume 1.djvu/258

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230
CEDAR BIRD.

nate, acute tip; lower mandible nearly straight, a little bulging toward the end. Nostrils basal, oval, partially concealed by the recumbent feathers. Head and neck of ordinary size. Body bulky. Legs rather short; tarsus compressed, anteriorly scutellate; toes scutellate above, the outer toe united at the base to the middle one, the inner shorter than the outer; claws arched, compressed, acute.

Plumage blended, soft and silky; an erectile tuft on the head. Wings rather long, the first quill longest. Tail slightly rounded, of twelve straight, broad feathers.

Bill, eyes, and feet, brownish-black. A black band on the forehead, passing backwards, tapering behind the eye, to the occiput, and margined above and below by a narrow white band. Head, neck, and breast yellowish-brown, or fawn colour, fading into yellow on the abdomen, and yellowish-white under the tail. Chin black. Back and wing-coverts greyish-brown, passing on the lower back into light bluish-grey, of which colour are the tail-coverts. Quills brownish-black, some of the secondaries tipped with a small flat, oblong appendage, of the colour of red sealing-wax. Of these appendages there are also frequently some on the tail, which is greyish at the base, passing into brownish-black, and terminated by a band, of pale yellow.

Length 6¾ inches, extent of wings 11; bill along the ridge 5/12, along the gap ¾; tarsus ¾.


Adult Female. Plate XLIII. Fig. 2.

The female is slightly smaller, and in external appearance differs from the male only in being a little lighter in the tints of the plumage, and in having the crest shorter. The waxen appendages also occur in the female.




The Red Cedar.


Juniperus virginiana, Willd. Sp. Pl. vol. iv. p. 863. Mich. Arbr. Forest. de l'Amer. Septent. vol. iii. p. 42. Pl. 5.—Diœcia Monadelphia, Linn. Coniferæ, Juss.


This plant is very generally distributed in the United States, and frequently attains a height of from forty to fifty feet, with a diameter of a