BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 289 



about gaily in the severest day; but they give the spring, 

 when it returns, a warm and grateful welcome ; their plaintive 

 whistle at that time, resembling the words phe-be, with rising 

 and falling inflections, is one of the sweetest sounds which an- 

 nounce the morning of the year. 



The eggs of the chicadee are laid in holes in trees, which 

 they sometimes excavate with their bills, without the formality 

 of preparing a nest. They are from six to twelve in number, 

 white, with specks of brown red. The young, as soon as fledged, 

 resemble the parents, and associate with them, in a cheerful 

 party, running over trees in all directions, sometimes hanging 

 with the head downward, and leaving no crevice unexplored 

 where insects may possibly harbor. 



The Cedar bird, Bojiibycilla Caroliiiensis, is well known, 

 or as some would say, notorious, and not so generally welcome 

 as one might suppose, who regarded only the silken delicacy of 

 its plumage, and the insatiable appetite with which it gathers 

 caterpillars, beetles and cankerworms from the trees. The 

 reason is, that in the season of fruit, they repay themselves by 

 eating cherries, pears, and other luxuries with so much relish 

 and so little discretion, that they have been known to gorge 

 themselves to death. When they alight upon a tree, they are 

 so crowded together that many may be killed by a single shot. 

 They immediately spread themselves over the branches, pick- 

 ing the fruit faster than their mouths will hold it ; and not 

 suspending their labor for an instant, except to invite other 

 flocks that may be passing over, to descend and share it with 

 them. If the horticulturist, who sees the results of his labor 

 disappearing, undertakes to prevent it, he only wastes his pow- 

 der ; that some of their number are shot, is a matter of uncon- 

 cern to the survivors ; he may gratify his revenge, but the 

 scene of plunder will go on before his eyes ; and he can only 

 console himself with the reflection, that, in proportion to the 

 appetite with which they devour his fruit, is the energy, with 

 which, at other seasons, they take his part against enemies which 

 he himself cannot reach. The truth seems to be, that, till 

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