149 



Cedar-birds has frequently been noted. Often when a num- 

 ber are feeding, one will seize a cherry, pass it to the next 

 and this one in turn give it to his neighbor. A number of 

 times I have seen cherries thus go the rounds of three or 

 four birds before they were swallowed. 



On the return trip, our bird would leave and drop down 

 to the topmost twig of the apple tree while the other two 

 continued down into the valley where they had their homes. 

 Mother Wax-wing fed the little birds several times while 

 her mate kept watch. She was not a bird to be imposed on 

 for very long, however; after calling to him for some time 

 she flew to his side and pecked at him until he went down to 

 the nest and gave his children the cherries he had been hold- 

 ing in his mouth for so long. She went along with him and 

 we secured a good view of the group just as he was "cough- 

 ing up" some food. 



During this day the parent birds fed the young at inter- 

 vals of about ten minutes for half an hour, then the mother 

 brooded them for the next half hour. Two days later we 

 had a violent thunder storm accompanied by very high 

 winds. I very much feared for the safety of the nest and 

 its occupants and was very glad to find later that our strings 

 had held things in place, although the nest was a little awry. 



As we approached the parents left the nest and the young 

 birds, now almost large enough to fly, assumed the same 

 motionless attitude, heads well forward, that the adults al- 

 ways take when startled. 



I never before had young birds act as these did when we 

 placed them side by side on a branch. They were all as 

 "mean" as they could be but one of them was a regular imp; 

 just like a spoiled child, he would bite and kick and throw 

 himself backwards off the branch, regardless of how he 

 fell, — usually, however, he would grab a neighbor by the 

 wing or tail and pull it along with him. When we could 

 get them to stay on the branch at all, they looked stiff and 



