228 



NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



CEDAR WAXWING. 

 F. E. L. Beal, Earmer's Bulletin No. 54, 1897. 

 Ants and ichneumons, crane-flies, bark and scale lice, grass- 

 hoppers and earwigs are also eaten but together not equaling 



the beetles and caterpillars. Spiders are frequently taken. 

 The nestlings are fed mostly on insects, these forming over 

 four-fifths of the food. 



The vegetable food amounts to eighty-seven per cent. Except 

 for buds eaten mostly in May, the vegetable element is entirely 

 fruit. This is mostly w^ild fruit (seventy-four per cent) and in- 

 cludes a great variety, such as Juneberry, Hackberry, Dogwood, 

 Huckleberry, Red Cedar, Mistletoe, Pokeberry, Black cherry, 

 Choke cherry. Black elder. Black haw and Wild Grape. The 

 cultivated fruit taken (thirteen per cent) is cherries, blackber- 

 ries, raspberries and mulberries. Frozen apples are occasionally 

 eaten in winter. The extent of cultivated fruit stolen by these 

 birds is much less than is generally supposed, amounting to less 

 than one-fifth of the fruit taken, and largely of varieties hav- 

 ing little value. The only depredations of any seriousness what- 

 ever seem to be upon early cherries in June and July, but as the 

 bird is scarce in Nebraska during these months no harm can be 

 done by it in this state. The horticulturist, therefore, will do 

 well in protecting the Waxwings. 



