FOUR NEIGHBORS DIVERSE 



Grosbeak or Purple Finch I thought it would prove to 

 be. On June first the nest held four eggs, which looked 

 like tanagers', but there was no bird in sight. Next 

 time, however, the female tanager was on the nest. 

 It was not favorably situated to photograph, but I 

 thought I would pose the young later, when they were 

 of the right age. But young land birds grow surpris- 

 ingly fast and I must have waited just a little too long, 

 for in a Wood Thrush's nest near by, in which the eggs 

 were laid at about the same time, the young were ready 

 to leave, and the tanagers' nest was empty. But I 

 photographed a nest with eggs on a sapling in the woods 

 and so have at least that much to show. Once I came 

 near getting a good snapshot picture of a male on a 

 wire fence with my reflecting camera. I crept up quite 

 near, but the bird started to fly just as I snapped, so 

 the picture was not very good. 



Of the two species of waxwdngs, the Bohemian Wax- 

 wing is a very rare winter visitor from the far North, 

 and I have never seen it alive. The other, the Cedar- 

 bird, is a common and familiar bird, much admired 

 for its soft brown plumage, its wavy crest, the yellow- 

 bordered tail, and the little red "sealing wax" feather 

 tips that some of them have on their wings. Most of 

 the year they go in compact flocks, making a lisping 

 note as they fly, and alighting close together on the 

 trees. These flocks sometimes appear in the winter, 

 and one of my earliest recollections about birds is that 

 one bitter cold day in February a large flock of these 



194. 



