CEDAR BIRD, OR CHERRY BIRD. 2^51 



struction with the thoughtless and rapacious sportsman ; 

 who, because many of these unfortunate birds can be 

 killed in an instant, sitting in the same range, thinks the 

 exercise of the gun must be credited only by the havock 

 which it produces against a friendly, useful, and innocent 

 visitor. 



Towards the close of May, or beginning of June, the 

 Cherry-birds, now paired, commence forming the cradle of 

 their young ; yet still so sociable are they, that several nests 

 may be observed in the same vicinity. The materials 

 and trees chosen for their labors are various, as well as the 

 ojeneral markings of their ecras. Two nests, in the Botanic 

 Garden at Cambridge, were formed in small hemlock * 

 trees, at the distance of 16 or 18 feet from the ground, 

 in the forks of the main branches. One of these was com- 

 posed of dry, coarse grass, interwoven roughly with a con- 

 siderable quantity of dead hemlock sprigs, further con- 

 nected by a small quantity of silk-weed t lint, and lined 

 with a few strips of thin grape-vine bark, and dry leaves of 

 the silver fir. In the second nest the lining was merely 

 fine root fibres. On the 4th of June this nest contained 2 

 eggs ; the whole number is generally about 4 or 5 ; these 

 are of the usual form (not remarkable for any disproportion 

 of the 2 ends), of a pale clay white, inclining to olive, 

 with a few well defined black or deep umber spots at the 

 great end, and with others seen, as it were, beneath the 

 surface of the shell. Two or three other nests were made 

 in the Apple-trees of an adjoining orchard, one in a place 

 of difficult access, the other on a depending branch easily 

 reached by the hand. These were securely fixed hori- 

 zontally among the ascending twigs, and were formed 

 externally of a mass of dry, wiry weeds ; the materials 

 being firmly held together by a large quantity of Cud- 



* Abies canadensis. L. f Ascleftias, species. 



