124 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



the country in summer, retiring southward at the approach of 

 winter. Inhabiting a warmer climate than its northern rela- 

 tive, it is able to subsist more largely upon insects. 



In eighty-eight stomachs reported by Dr. Judd,^ only seven 

 birds were found. Mice formed fifty per cent, of the winter 

 food, or sixteen per cent, of that for the wliole year. Beetles 

 and their larvae constituted twenty per cent., of which half 

 were predaceous. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, wasps, and spi- 

 ders were all found in considerable numbers. The nestlings 

 are fed mainly upon insects, with an occasional mouse or 

 small bird. 



Although the loggerhead shrike destroys a few birds and 

 beneficial insects, these seem to be more tlian compensated 

 for by its destruction of mice and noxious insects. 



THE WAXWINGS. 



The beautiful family of waxwings {Ampelidce) is repre- 

 sented in North America by three species, only one of which 

 is at all common and widely distributed. Of the other two, 

 one, the Bohemian waxwing, is found in the far North, 

 coming to the southern line of Canada in the winter, and the 

 other, the shining fly-snapper, occurs in the Southwestern 

 States. Another species inchided by some ornithologists in 

 this family is Townsend's fly-catching thrush, a peculiar bird 

 found in the Rocky Mountain region. 



The only member with which we are especially concerned 

 in the present connection, however, is the handsome Cedar 

 Waxwing, or Cedar-Bird, sometimes also called the Cherry- 

 Bird. This '• gem of ornithological beauties" is found in 

 nearly all the United States and throughout a large part of 

 Canada. It commonly goes in small flocks which wander 

 from place to place in search of food, and is usually present 

 in all but the most northern States both winter and summer. 



1 Div. Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1898, Bull. No. 9, p. 20. 



