75 



whitish; belly white; breast and sides washed with greenish yellow; iris white in 

 adult; hazel in the young. 



L., 5.27; W., 2.37; T., 2.00. 



Kest, pensile, suspended from a forked branch in a bush or low tree. Egg& 

 three or four, white, with a few specks of black or dark brown at the larger end. 



BLUE-HEADED VIEEO. 



Crown and sides of head, bluish gray ; back olive green ; wings and tail dusky, 

 most of the feathers edged with whitish; greater and middle wing coverts tipped 

 with white, forming two distinct wing bars ; a broad white line from nostrils around 

 the eye and a dusky loral line. Below, white, sides washed with greenish yellow. 



L., 5.50; W., 2.75; T., 2.25. 



ISTest, pensile, suspended from a fork of a bush or low tree. Eggs, four or five, 

 white, with a few spots of blackish or dark brown chiefly at the larger end. 



WAXWINGS. 



We have two species of this family in Canada. The Bohemian Waxwing is a 

 winter visitor only, and a somewhat rare one. As it is of no economic importance 

 whatever it need not be considered. 



The Cedar Waxwing or cherry bird is very common and, though very beautiful 

 and an insect destroyer to a certain extent, its value to the fruit-grower is somewhat 

 questionable. It undoubtedly consumes a large number of cherries and currants, 

 and some few raspberries, but so far as I have observed the mischief it does is 

 confined to these varieties of fruit alone. 



The quantity of fruit consumed by each individual Waxwing does not amount 

 to much, but the trouble is that these birds are gregarious at all times, and visit the 

 cherry orchards in such large flocks, and remain where they find food to their liking 

 so long, that they really do seriously reduce the value of a crop. Where a man 

 makes a specialty of growing these small fruits and finds himself visited by an 

 excessive number of Cherry birdt= he is undoubtedly justified in protecting his pro- 

 perty from destruction, which does not necessarily mean killing the birds. As 

 against this cherry-eating habit of the AVaxwing, it may be urged that the birds 

 destroy a large number of injurious insects, leaf-eating beetles especially forming 

 a large proportion of their food. They are also very expert fly-catchers, often hawk- 

 ing about after winged insects in the manner of the Swallows, though their flight 

 is never long sustained. At other times they dart out after passing jnsects in the 

 manner of the flycatchers, and so on the whole may be said to do more good than 

 harm, for it is only when too many have gathered together in some particular 

 cherry orchard that the damage they do is noticeable at all. 



The Cedar Waxwing is rather erratic in its movements, generally being with 

 us a summer resident only, but I have occasionally seen large numbers here in the 

 winter. They then feed on the berries of the Mountain Ash. haws and such other 

 wild fruits as remain hanging on the bushes during the cold season. 



